Margaret Joy Stark

When Margaret was very young, the family moved to Austin to put her older brother Gerald in the Texas School for the Deaf. During her school age years, her parents divorced. She grew up on the Capital View Dairy that her mother owned and operated. Margaret would help out by going with her brother Gerald to deliver whole milk to local area grocery stores.

Margaret graduated from Austin High School and then attended a local Business College. Following graduation from the Business College she worked for a couple of construction companies including Fabricon.

Margaret devoted herself to taking care of her mother and her deaf brother and remained single for almost her entire life.

After her father died in 1955, Margaret started working at the Skyline Club in Austin which she jointly owned with her two brothers; Warren and Gerald Stark. She started working behind the bar area and was a whiz at doing the math in her head to collect the total for each waitress's order. After her niece Cathy was born in 1961, Margaret moved to the entrance to the dancehall where she handled admission tickets. The Skyline Club was a fixture in the Austin Country Music scene and was host to major entertainers like Hank Williams Senior, Johnny Horton, Marty Robbins, Ray Price, and introduced both Elvis Pressley and Charley Pride to Austin. Margaret also managed the "Over 29 Club" on Thursday nights at the Skyline which featured the big band sounds of area orchestras.

The Skyline was closed in 1977. Margaret was not ready to stop working and so she launched into real estate by going back to school and earning her real estate license and then her broker license. She initially worked for Bryan Adams at the Gallery of Homes. It was there that she met Linda Wylie who had also recently acquired her real estate license.

After a short time as a real estate agent, Linda Wylie hired Margaret to work in her business Shamrock Properties. After a number of years, Linda moved to Colorado and Margaret continued to operate this one person property management firm until finally retiring at the age of 84.

Margaret continued to live alone and take care of the home that she and her mother had purchased in 1960. In November of 2014, Margaret suffered a minor stroke and it became clear that she could no longer live alone. In January 2015 she moved to Eden Hill Communities in New Braunfels close to her nephew Charles and his family. She first lived in Assisted Living and then moved to full skilled care in the summer of 2015.

On October 26, 2018 Margaret died at the age of 95. She is preceded in death by her parents, her brother Gerald and his wife Dorothy Stark, and her brother Warren and his wife Clara Stark. She is survived by nephew Charles and wife Bonnie Stark of Burton, niece Gail and Henry Ferguson of Pflugerville, and niece Cathy and husband Roland Quick of Pflugerville. She is also survived by several Great Nieces and Nephews, who she considered as her own grandchildren, Alan and wife Deadra Stark of Buda, Sara and husband Tracey Morgan of Seattle, WA, John Stark of Austin, Mark and wife Crystal Ferguson and Clint and wife Yolanda Ferguson of Pflugerville, Laura and husband Tom Doise of Cedar Creek, and Kevin and Ben Quick of Austin.

Visitation will be held from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. on Monday, October 29th at Weed-Corley-Fish Funeral Home, 3125 N Lamar Blvd. Funeral services will be at 2:00 p.m. on Tuesday, October 30, 2018 in the Weed-Corley-Fish Chapel. Burial will follow at Oakwood Annex Cemetery.