Visitation:
Saturday, January 26, 2019
11:00 AM - 1:00 PM
Service:
Saturday, January 26, 2019
1:00 PM
Margaret Eldora Willford, age 96, of Plymouth, Ohio, passed away on Friday, January 18, 2019, at The Willows at Willard following a brief illness. She was born in Shelby on January 26, 1922, and lived most of her life in the Plymouth-Shiloh area. She was the first of seven children born to the late Alva M. and Hazel M. (Wayt) Laser. Her friends have known her as “Dory” or Eldora.
Eldora graduated from Shiloh High School in 1939 and worked as an Army ordnance inspector during WWII. In 1943 she married the late Carl R. Willford and became a “farmer’s wife,” a life she dearly loved. In 1992 Eldora authored her own cookbook, “Welcome to my World,” which was featured along with her picture in the Taste of Home magazine. She then became a field editor for Taste of Home magazine. In the years that followed she wrote three additional books with her fourth book written in 2011, “Patriotic Memories of a WWII Bride,” a copy of which was forwarded by her dear friend Dr. Jim Hennessey to the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., where it was subsequently placed in their catalog. She was an avid reader and attended the annual Buckeye Book Fair in Wooster, Ohio, for 25 years. She was a member of Order of the Eastern Star, Daughters of the American Revolution, and a life-long member of First Evangelical Lutheran Church in Plymouth. Eldora reigned as Plymouth’s Bicentennial Queen in 2015.
Eldora is survived by three children, Patricia Ann (Raymond) Hood, Germantown, Maryland; Nancy Jean (Robert) Giesige of Mount Gilead; and Charles Lester (Linda) Willford, Alliance, Nebraska. She is also survived by four grandchildren, Jennifer (Dale) Scholl, San Antonio, Texas; Jill Couch of Shelby; Joshua Willford, Gillette, Wyoming; and Jayson Willford, Alliance, Nebraska, as well as three great-grandchildren, Abigail and Austin Scholl, San Antonio, Texas, and Makenzie Couch of Shelby. Eldora is survived by two brothers Alfred Laser of Greeley, Colorado, and Thomas Laser, of Fairfield, Pennsylvania, as well as a sister Della Kaple of Galion. She has several nieces and nephews. In addition to her parents and her husband she was preceded in death by a young son, Richard Alva Willford, and two granddaughters, Sarah Marie Andrews, and infant Christie Lynn Willford. Three sisters, Juanita Baker, Nadine Morris, and Mary Davis preceded her in death as well.
Friends may call at the First Evangelical Lutheran Church in Plymouth on Saturday, January 26, 2019, from 11:00 a.m. until 1:00 p.m. A memorial service will immediately follow at 1:00 p.m. with Pastor Blanche Tyree officiating. Burial will be held at Greenlawn Cemetery in Plymouth. Memorial contributions may be made to the First Evangelical Lutheran Church in Plymouth or Stein Hospice, 1200 Sycamore Line, Sandusky, Ohio 44870. Online condolences may be expressed to the family at www.secorfuneralhomes.com.