Margaret Carrig

Margaret Louise Carrig passed away on Thursday, December 8th, 2022. She was born in Washington, District of Columbia, to Philip Joseph Viehmann and Mary Louise Connolly, the first of three children. Margaret was raised in a devout Catholic home on Quesada Street. She and her siblings grew up listening to stories of their grandparents’ experiences during the Civil War, not knowing that, in time, she would have her own wartime stories to pass on.

Margaret attended Holy Cross Academy, graduating with top honors in 1936. A talented basketball player, her team won the Catholic Girls’ High School Basketball League Championship in 1935. Her senior year, she was elected President of the Student Body.

A firecracker ahead of her time with dreams of attending Georgetown University like her father, the school unfortunately did not choose to admit women until well after her school days. Still determined to continue her education, she attended Dunbarton College of the Holy Cross, where she was very active both academically and in extracurricular activities. Among those activities, she was named the President of the Sophomore Class in 1937 and was a member of the Shahan Club, raising funds to aid Holy Cross foreign missions.

After graduating, she worked for the Treasury Department as a secretary. Once again excelling at her craft, she was recognized amongst her peers for her exactness of her typing skills. Notably, Margaret was called into the White House in the middle of the night in March, 1941 to type the Lend-Lease Act to be signed. This act allowed the United States to provide aid to the Allies prior to their official entrance into the war. Even then, she understood its historical significance, recalling not being allowed to tell anyone where she was doing and even having special trash receptacles for the used ink cartridges, lest a foreign adversary try to determine their use by reviewing the stamped out letters.

A woman of the society pages, Margaret attended many of the big social occasions in her day. At one such dance, she met the smooth talking, handsome, Irish Catholic football star from Catholic University, Joseph Patrick Carrig. The pair hit it off, and after his graduation in May, 1941, they became engaged. They wed shortly after, on Wednesday, July 9, 1941 at the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament.

In 1942, the couple welcomed their first child, Joseph Patrick, Jr. Margaret shifted her work from the White House to the Brick Apartment in which they lived. They welcomed two more sons, Michael Francis and Philip Aloysius. By then Joseph had been employed by the FBI and in 1946, he was sent on assignment to Chile, an assignment which lasted for approximately one year. The family moved with him, and while they only lived there for a year, Margaret returned with a fluency in Spanish that she never forgot.

Upon returning to the United States, the Carrigs welcomed a fourth son, Dennis Charles. They then moved to New Jersey, where Margaret continued to reside for more than 70 years. Despite spending most of her life there, she always considered herself a “southern girl,” never letting go of her Washington, D.C. roots. There, the family grew from six to eleven, welcoming four more sons, Kevin John, Thomas John, John Austin, and Christopher Martin, and one daughter, Mary Margaret. Margaret kept her hands full raising her family, participating in school and church events, playing lots of bridge, and hosting the myriad of friends her children brought through her doors.

Upon the youngest Carrig leaving the nest, Margaret kept herself ever busy. She joined the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of the Census, where she worked for thirteen years before retiring. She joined the Mercer County Choral Choir, and upon learning of the Mercer County Gospel Choir, she joined that, too. She continued her education by taking courses at Mercer College, sometimes in the same class (and competing for the top grade) with her son, John. She joined an Elderhostel group and traveled all over the country, and even abroad, enjoying numerous trips to Spain. In her late 60s, she even repelled a mountain for the first time, determined to face her fear of heights. She visited her children all across the country, doting on her many grandchildren. She enjoyed spending time with her husband, her family, her many friends, and a really good book.

She will be remembered for her unfailing wit, devotion to grammatical correctness (for anything less was something up with which she would not put!), hilarious limericks, love of puns, crossword puzzles, and bridge, and ability to party with children and grandchildren alike. Indeed, she stayed up well past 3:00 a.m. on the night of her 100th birthday celebration, doing crossword puzzles and sipping on vodka, regaling her grandchildren with stories of a life well lived and times she had a knack for conveying with wit and conviviality.

Margaret is preceded in death by her husband, Joseph Patrick; and her sons, Joseph Patrick, Jr. and Michael Francis. Margaret is survived by her children, Philip Aloysius, Dennis (Jan), Kevin (Nancy), Thomas (Donna), John (Janet), Mary Margaret, and Christopher; her grandchildren, Emily (Brec) Carson, Patrick (Amy) Ditko, Joseph (Adia) Ditko, James, John “Jack” (Dy), Meghan (Juan) Galazzo, Elizabeth (John) Peterson, Lucy (Lee) Jewell, Ian (Alley), Steven, Michael Austin, Nicholas, Clement, Rachel (Tyler) Whirley, Doug, and Philip George Aloysius; her great grandchildren, Clara, Jack, and Meghan Carson; Carson and Parker Ditko; Anastasia Ditko; Gianna and Avery Carrig; Yvie, Vincent, and Alice Carrig; Marcos and Adrian Galazzo; and Britt, Liam, and Hadley Jewell; and numerous nieces, nephews, grandnieces, grandnephews, great grandnieces, and great grandnephews.

Ever a devout Catholic, Margaret passed away on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, a holiday meant to honor Our Lady, the Virgin Mary, and perhaps now too Margaret, our matriarch. She lived a life too full for the brief words here to properly encapsulate. She will be forever loved and deeply missed.

Interment will be at St. Mary’s Cemetery in Hamilton, New Jersey, in 2023, at a date to be determined. In lieu of flowers, please consider donating to Margaret’s high school alma mater, the Academy of Holy Cross in Kensington, Maryland, in her honor. https://www.academyoftheholycross.org/

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.lantermanallenfh.com for the Carrig family.