When Margaret Hollon died peacefully at her Blanchester home last week, Clinton County lost one its outstanding citizens.

Margaret Caroline McKinney Hollon, who died at the age of 92 on Monday, Feb. 9, 2009, was named to the Class of 2005 of Outstanding Women of Clinton County. Local residents are remembering Mrs. Hollon as the Class of 2009 is being selected.

A $5-a-week job, resulting in a lack of money for room and board, kept Margaret Hollon from attending college after graduating from high school in 1934, but that did not keep her from pursuing and realizing her dreams. After raising four children, Mrs. Hollon went to Wilmington College at age 50 and completed a bachelor’s degree. After college, she taught 17 years in Blanchester schools, where she had attended school as a youngster.

Mrs. Hollon developed a strong desire to help “non-traditional learners,” which led her to complete a master’s degree in learning disabilities at the University of Cincinnati. By attending night school and summer school there, she learned progressive teaching methods that she implemented in her own classroom.

Mrs. Hollon also started, along with a friend, the Girl Scout movement in Blanchester, serving as a community liaison for the national Girl Scout organization. She also was a Cub Scout leader and a 4-H leader for many years.

Her commitment to area youth did not stop there. Mrs. Hollon was superintendent of Grace United Methodist Church’s youth program and taught Bible School and Sunday School for many years.

She was selected grand marshal of the Fourth of July parade in Blanchester along with her husband of 56 years, Thaddeus C. Hollon, who preceded her in death in 1993.

Mrs. Hollon was an officer in the United Methodist Women, Rebekah Circle, the Twentieth Century Club and the Amicitia Club.

She was a member of the Ohio Retired Teachers Association and the Green Key Society.

Margaret McKinney was born Feb. 22, 1916, in Level, the daughter of the late John E. McKinney and Mary M. South. She grew up at Pleasant Plain.

Mrs. Hollon is survived by a sister, Anabel McKinney-Rowe of Pleasant Plain; four children, Brenda Hollon of Palm Springs, Calif., T. Chad (Wilma) Hollon of Blanchester, Linda (Clifford) Craig of Batavia, and Dr. John (Jennifer) Hollon of Wilmington; 11 grandchildren; 12 great-grandchildren; and five great-great-grandchildren.

In addition to her husband and parents, she was preceded in death by a sister, Hortense Murphy.