Margaret Wilson

Margaret was born into the world September 20th, 1929, in the front bedroom of her grandparents' home in Bladen County — a proper beginning for a woman who would always find her way back to family. Born to William Carey and Emily Delia Brown, she was soon joined by two sisters, Billy Faye and June Grey. Eventually the three became a force unto themselves known as ‘the Brown Sisters’. 

They were a lively, unruly threesome. They sang in church and on the radio, earned a reputation for toughness, and moved through childhood like a force of nature. Somewhere along the way, Margaret acquired the nickname "Baboot" — the kind of name that only sticks when it fits perfectly.

At Bladenboro High School, Margaret was not a girl who stood on the sidelines. She served in the Beta Club and choir, played guard on the basketball team, pitched softball, and was the only female student in the school who drove a school bus. She graduated with honors, and went on to the National School of Commerce in Charlotte where she distinguished herself in shorthand, bookkeeping and secretarial skills, earning her Associate's degree and launching a career that would prove as quietly formidable as the woman herself.

In June of 1954, while working at Norment Motors in Lumberton, Margaret encountered a handsome, self-assured young soldier who had come in to\ buy a car. There was an immediate spark — but when he asked her for a date, she replied with her characteristic composure, "Well, I can't, but I'll find you someone who can." He was not deterred. Arthur Lynwood Wilson Jr., Master Sergeant in the Air Force and soon-to-be stationed in Japan, began his long-distance courtship by means of phone calls and letters. Eventually, a letter arrived with an engagement ring tucked inside. They were married on December 26, 1954, in the chapel of First Baptist Church in Lumberton — a date chosen perhaps because one grand occasion deserved another.

The newlyweds settled in Raleigh, where Arthur Jr. studied Dairy Science at NC State and Margaret worked as a secretary for Gregory Poole. When they found out their first child was on the way they returned to Lumberton, where Arthur Lynwood Wilson III was born. Carey Brent followed four years later, and eleven months after that, Kimberly Elizabeth arrived — three children, a full house, and a life built exactly as Margaret intended. Family came first. It always would. While Arthur Jr. and his father ran Wilson's Ice Cream Company, Margaret kept the rhythms of home — family fishing trips, beach camping, birthdays marked with abundance, holidays observed with care and celebration. In 1967 she returned to work as a school secretary at Rowland-Norment Elementary, a post she held with characteristic dedication until her retirement in 1995.

She taught Sunday school to seventh and eighth graders at First Baptist, served on committees, and gave of her time freely to the community she loved — showing up for air shows, for Rumba on the Lumba, for whatever needed doing. She tended her plants, loved to travel and shop, and took to water aerobics with genuine delight. Music of any kind could move her, and she would often simply sing along. But her truest joy was always the same: a room full of family, laughter at the table, the making of memories. In December of 2004, Margaret and Arthur Jr. celebrated their fiftieth wedding anniversary surrounded by those they loved. On April 22, 2005, Arthur Jr. passed away. 

Margaret Elizabeth Brown Wilson departed this life survived by her three children, a daughter-in-law Gricelda, a son-in-law Dooley, five grandsons, three great-grandsons, and two great-granddaughters — and a wide circle of friends and neighbors who had been captive to the warmth she so naturally radiated.

Her legacy is written in the lives she shaped: in strength, in generosity, in love, and in a faith that never once wavered. She was 96, and never met a stranger.

To celebrate her life, the family will receive friends on Saturday, May 2, 2026 from 10-10:45 am at the Bladenboro Chapel of Bladen Gaskins at 800 N. Main Street in Bladenboro immediately followed by a funeral service at 11:00 am. Burial will follow the services in the Singletary Cemetery in Butters.