Celebrating Women’s History Month

Marge Abbott (1910-2013): Local writer, poet at heart

by Tina Cole-Mullins

Many in Stockbridge may have known Marjorie “Marge” Abbott as a successful businesswoman, a co-founder of the Abbott & Fillmore Agency on Main Street in Stockbridge. But Marge was a woman of many talents, including a published author and poet.

In March 2019, the Stockbridge Community News published an article titled “The woman beside the man…” highlighting Marge’s success and contributions in her business life working beside her husband. But few knew of Marge’s success as a writer. Her short stories and verse were published in newspapers such as The Wall Street Journal. Her writing also appeared in children’s magazines like Kiddie’s Funbook, Child Life, and Highlights for Children.

Publication of her work began in the early 1950s and spanned nearly a decade. This timeframe coincided with the childhood years of her only daughter Sally. For example, in spring 1954, Marge’s Easter riddle poem, “Easter Colors,” (see sidebar) was published in Child Life magazine.

In addition to writing, Marge was an accomplished violinist who performed with the Jackson Symphony Orchestra. She loved to travel and visited Germany, the Mediterranean, Portugal and Italy. Although Marge was a social traveler who made trips abroad, she also could be introverted at times, as one of her earliest children’s poems, “Windows,” reflects (see sidebar).

Marge and her husband enjoyed square dancing and were popular dancers throughout the area. She was fond of area history, sponsored several social and historical groups, and was a founding member of the Waterloo Farm Museum.

Marge was born on Friday the 13th, in May 1910, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. As a child, she migrated back and forth between Toronto and Detroit with her grandparents for her grandfather’s work as a carpenter.

At 21, she began the five-year process of obtaining her American citizenship. A short time later, she met Wendell Abbott, who would become her husband in 1935. The newlyweds relocated to Grass Lake and later settled in Stockbridge as home.

Marge graduated from the Detroit Business Institute in 1932. With her degree, she secured a position as an executive secretary at the Socony (Mobil) Oil Co. Later, the Abbotts started their own business by selling license plates for the state of Michigan out of their home. The company gradually grew to include real estate and insurance sales. The Abbott & Fillmore Agency Inc. is one of Stockbridge’s oldest businesses still in operation.

Marge lived a long, full life and died in 2013 at age 102, just a few months short of her 103rd birthday.

Marge Abbott was a talented violinist who performed with the Jackson Symphony Orchestra.

A cover photo from Kiddie’s Funbook 1953 Hart Publications. Marge Abbott was published in the children’s magazine.

A photo of the Child Life April 1954 cover. Marge Abbott’s “Easter Colors” poem was published in the magazine.