HANCOCK, Mass. Margaret Flaccus Fenander, 86, passed peacefully on Sept. 22, 2026.

The oldest child of Louis W. Flaccus and Ruth Shoemaker Flaccus, Margie was born in Philadelphia and grew tall in
Westtown, PA and Scarsdale, NY. She was gracefully easy with glove, bat, ball, racquet, or stick; athletic teams at Westtown School (1958) and Swarthmore College (1962) attracted her competitive and fun-loving spirit.

Margie built a life defined by integrity, resilience, kindness, and love. She showed love through nurturing actions rather than grand gestures. Her greatest joy was raising four daughters on a small farm with huge vegetable gardens in Hancock. Margie valued family, education, environment, volunteerism, civic engagement, peace, and peaceful protest. She served on the Hancock Conservation Commission and Council on Aging. Margie volunteered tirelessly at
Little Red Schoolhouse, Pine Cobble School, South Williamstown Food Co-op, Hancock Elementary School, and Western Massachusetts Labor Action.

Margie was a "maker" of all things. She wrote and published quarterly catalogs for Iron Kettle Books, grew vegetables from seed, knit gorgeous sweaters, sewed and mended clothes, caned chairs, and preserved garden bounties by canning, drying, and freezing. Most of all, she grew friendships.

In her last years, Margaret moved north to live in her family home in Tamworth, NH. She savored the quiet, dark, and starry nights, songbird and frog choruses of spring and summer, and enchanted moose encounters during fall and winter. Her favorite spot, both in Hancock and Tamworth, was close to the wood stove with a book in hand or writing a letter.

Margaret showed her flexibility to the end by developing rich relationships with guests and staff at the Mount Washington Valley Adult Day Center in Conway, NH and within the vibrant Tamworth community.

Margaret is predeceased by her daughter Jennifer Fenander. She is survived by two brothers (David and Laurence Flaccus), three daughters (Sara Fenander, Amy Fenander Garcia, and Becca Fenander), and four grandsons (Evan Sanders and Iain, Will, and Jamie Malone).

Margaret’s family will host a remote Memorial in the care of North Sandwich Friends’ Meeting at the end of October. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Margaret’s name to Mount Washington Valley Adult Day Center, Tamworth Community Nurses Association, or Westtown School. Alternatively, it would bring Margaret great pleasure if anyone planted a tree in her honor.