Blackmer Funeral Home

She was born July 5, 1913 in Tappen, North Dakota, the second of ten children born to Jonathan Perry and Carrie Isis Pulver Geesey. She was raised in the Tappen area and graduated from Tappen High School in 1931.   

She married Leonard Walter Hauntz in 1935 in San Francisco, California. A daughter, Beverly, was born in 1943, and a son, Dale, in 1948. Margarette and Leonard settled in the Grangeville area in the late 1940’s.  She worked in several Grangeville businesses over the years including JC Penney’s, and Vern’s Grocery.  Leonard passed away in 1975, and Margarette continued to care for her large home, yard, and garden, and remained active in the community until moving to Vale, Oregon in the fall of 2006.   

She enjoyed traveling, visiting friends and family, playing Scrabble with friends after church, and going out to eat.  She hosted three Geesey family reunions at her home and attended reunions in North Dakota, Texas and Colorado.   

Margarette was preceded in death by her parents; husband Leonard, brother Roy Geesey, sisters Eloise Job, Doris DeWitz, Neoma McCumber, Wanda Jean Cornell, LaDonna Kruger and Lucille Ellingson.   

She is survived by her daughter, Beverly and her husband Jack Peterson of Ontario, Oregon; her son Dale and his wife Jill Hauntz of Pierce, Idaho; brother Norman and wife Olivia of El Paso, Texas; sister Marcella and her husband Oris Heiden of Fargo, North Dakota; granddaughters Carrol Meredith, Jodie Nichols and Donna Lewis; grandsons Toby and Jeff; and numerous great and great great grandchildren, as well as friends, Betty, Laura and Jackie.   

The family would like to offer special thanks to Margarette’s caregivers, Maria and Juan, for the loving care and wonderful home they gave her, and thanks to Terry and Ruth as well.  Margarette will be missed by those who knew and loved her. 

Funeral services will be held Thursday, July 9, 2009, at 1:00 p.m., at the Blackmer Funeral Home in Grangeville.  Burial will follow at Prairie View Cemetery in Grangeville.  Viewing will be held on Wednesday, July 8, from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m., at the funeral home.