Margaret Fry Austin

Margaret Lenore Fry Austin was born on January 13, 1924 in Asheville, North Carolina to Cecil McCally (Collie) Fry and Gertrude Kincaid Fry. Margaret and her sister Rose Marie were raised in the family home in Beattyville, Kentucky. A National Honor Society student in high school, Margaret attended business school in Lexington, Kentucky and then worked for the FBI in Washington, D.C. during WWII. She returned to Kentucky and then moved with her parents to Miami, where her father was posted with the Navy.

In Miami, Margaret met Charles Robert (Bob) Austin, who had just returned from active duty with the US Army Air Corps in the South Pacific. They were married on June 23, 1945. After Bob’s discharge from the Army, they returned to Kentucky and raised three sons, David, Steve, and Mike. Bob was transferred from Lexington, Kentucky to Austin, Texas by IBM in 1970.

Margaret and Bob spent many good years together in Austin. They were big country music fans and especially loved Willie Nelson. For many years after moving to Austin Margaret grew beautiful African violets and she gave many years of dedicated service to the landscape committee for the Old Town Community HOA. She loved spending time with her family and traveling, fulfilling a life-long dream at age 78 of traveling to Egypt for a month of sightseeing and exploring. Her Christmas card that year was a picture of her riding a camel! She had a love of history, antiques, and all things Kentucky. One of her proudest accomplishments was completing the necessary genealogical research to obtain her mother’s membership in the Daughters of the American Revolution.

Margaret was a devout Christian, always actively participating in the life of her church homes, including for the past 28 years Hyde Park Christian in Austin.

Margaret passed away peacefully on the morning of June 18, 2014. She was preceded in death by her husband, Bob, parents Gertrude and Collie Fry, sister Rose Marie Gabbard, and brother-in-law Bobby Gabbard. She is survived by her sons, David and his wife Bonnie and Steve and his wife Cheri of San Diego, CA and Mike and his wife Kay of Austin, TX; eight grandchildren, Diane Austin, Michael Austin, Melissa Austin Johnson, Simon Austin, Aaron Turnbull, Laine Hamilton Young, Ian Hamilton, and Devon Austin Weaver; and eight great-grandchildren.

Friends are cordially invited to a visitation with the family from six o’clock until eight o’clock in the evening, on Sunday, the 22nd of June 2014, at Cook-Walden Funeral Home, 6100 North Lamar Boulevard, Austin, Texas.

Funeral services will be conducted at two o’clock in the afternoon on Monday, the 23rd of June 2014, at Hyde Park Christian Church, 610 E 45th St, Austin, TX 78751.