'Margaret the Merry Gardener' Briggs
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Most people knew her as "Bunny." But Seattle residents with an obsession for plants and all things green may remember her as "Margaret the Merry Gardener" - the friendly woman who regularly visited homes via black-and-white TV with helpful hints on beautiful gardens and exquisite floral arrangements.
Margaret Reilly Briggs, also an accomplished concert pianist, started her gardening career out of necessity. Shortly after she moved into her house during the Depression, her spacious yard descended into weeds.
"The place we moved into had a curved walkway and three fish ponds," said Stewart James Briggs, Mrs. Briggs' oldest son and a retired Boeing engineer. "The yard very quickly started reverting back to nature, so she started learning about gardening."
Mrs. Briggs died Jan. 29 in Palm Desert, Calif. She was 96.
Born in Sumpter, Ore., Mrs. Briggs embarked on her musical career at an early age. She moved with her family to Buhl, Idaho, where her talent earned her the distinction of representing the state at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music. "She grew up in a very small town, and it was a big deal them to go east for an education," said Jack Briggs, her youngest son. "She wasn't happy about it, but she loved music."
A year after the conservatory, she went on to study at the Chicago Musical College. She met her husband-to-be, John, the summer she stayed with her aunt and taught music in Gresham, Ore. John Briggs - an engineer who would later bring sound to Seattle's theaters in the late 1920s and 1930s - soon moved out to Chicago to work for Western Electric. The two dated, but Margaret returned home to Idaho after graduating from college.
It took more than a little nerve, but John was determined to marry Margaret. He sent her a telegram in 1924, declaring: "Am coming West to marry you." The soon-to-be-Mrs. Briggs had no objection. The two settled in Seattle in 1929.
Mrs. Briggs kept busy raising three sons and teaching piano. But she also applied her passions and seemingly limitless energy to other pursuits. She began her immersion in the world of gardening, organizing the Hayes Park Garden Club in 1937. She directed the 1945 Victory Garden Contest and eventually became the director of the Washington State Federation of Garden Clubs, Snoqualmie District, in 1947.
Always an ambassador of flowers, Mrs. Briggs helped coordinate the city's first floral parade on May 1, 1949. And the next year, she landed a job handling public relations for Seattle's Malmo Nurseries as well as directing the nursery's annual flower show and garden clinics. This catapulted her onto the airwaves.
From 1950 to 1955, Malmo Nurseries sponsored a 15-minute gardening show on KING-TV, where Mrs. Briggs became "Margaret of Malmo's." The popular show was expanded to 30 minutes in 1955, when the show changed its name to "Margaret the Merry Gardener." The program continued until 1962.
She established and directed the Seattle Civic Garden Center, served on numerous civic organizations, including the Seattle Park Department Committee. And she coordinated the floral arrangements, exhibits and competitions at the Seattle Home Show.
Friends and relatives fondly remember the celebrations, picnics by the lake and parties Mrs. Briggs loved to throw. Her motto, said Carol Peth Briggs, was "the more the merrier." Mrs. Briggs always had a joke and, almost always, a poem for every occasion. She and her husband displayed a certain exuberance for life.
When both were in their 90s, they decided to build a house in Palm Desert. They lived in their new home for just three months before her husband died. They were two weeks shy of their 70th wedding anniversary.
"She absolutely loved life and she always had a little joke" said Jack Briggs. "The last time I talked to her it was gray and rainy out. She said she thought she'd do a sun dance. This was the day before she died."
She is survived by her three sons, Stewart, of Anacortes; Richard, of Hadlock;and Jack of Seattle. She also leaves one grandson and two granddaughters as well as two great-grandchildren.Donations may be made in her name to Children's Hospital, P.O. Box 5371, Seattle, WA, 98105.