Margaret Holt

Longtime Durango resident Margaret G. Holt died Monday, October 1, 2012, at Sunshine Gardens West. She was 97.

Mrs. Holt was born on September 3, 1915, in Childress County, Texas, to Clarence Allen Guinn and Myrtle Frances (Gilmer) Guinn. Her ancestors were from pioneer Texas families, including her great-grandfather, who was given a Spanish land grant of a “league and a labor of land.”

Mrs. Holt spent her formative years on the Texas Plains that had been part of the Great XIT Ranch, once the largest spread in the world under fence and covering parts of ten Texas counties. Her fond memories of those early years brought her lifelong pleasure and comfort. She especially enjoyed recalling stories of her parents’ generosity to friends and neighbors during the Depression years and vividly remembered the first Dust Bowl storm that blew across their farm when she was a girl.

Mrs. Holt attended school in Friona, Texas, where she graduated high school in 1933. In the midst of the Great Depression, funds were not available for her to attend college, but she saved her money for two years and attended beauty school in Amarillo, Texas. Following graduation, she managed a beauty shop in Muleshoe, Texas. There, she met and married Arthur W. ("Bits") Holt on December 11, 1937.

The Holts and their three young daughters moved to Durango in 1947, when Mr. Holt and his brother Gale Holt purchased the Highland Motel and Service Station.

Mrs. Holt is remembered by family and friends as an elegant, gracious, and multi-talented woman. She was an expert seamstress who created designer touches to the clothes she made. She designed and sewed matching outfits for her three young daughters (at least until her two older daughters protested about being dressed like their youngest sister).

An excellent and creative cook, Mrs. Holt once designed a birthday cake to look like an open diary for daughter Ann Gross. In beautiful icing script she wrote, “Dear Diary, Today I am eleven years old.” Her daughters also recall family stories about friends who wanted to go hunting with their late father just to enjoy his wife's famous fudge cakes and southern chess pies.

Mrs. Holt was a perennial room mother at her daughters’ schools and taught Sunday school classes at the First Baptist Church of Durango. She was a member of the Durango Sewing Club (later, “The Club”) that spanned six decades and she was an active member and President of Chapter BR, P.E.O.

After her husband’s retirement in 1975, Mr. and Mrs. Holt moved to Brownwood, Texas, and Farmington before returning to Durango in 1995.

Mrs. Holt was preceded in death by her husband of 67 years, Arthur W. Holt, and her three brothers Allen Guinn, James Guinn, and John Charles (“Pete”) Guinn.

She is survived by daughters Kay Baker and Susan Reese of Durango and Ann Gross of Camino, California; grandsons Todd Baker of Norman, Oklahoma, Brett Baker of Houston, Texas, Grant Baker of North Arlington, Virginia, Joshua Gross of Durango, David Frost of California, and Adam Gross of Palos Verdes, California; five great-grandchildren; and many nieces and nephews, including Gary Robison of Durango.

A memorial service for Mrs. Holt will be held at a later date and followed by a private burial at Greenmount Cemetery.

In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to Hospice of Mercy, One Mercado Street, Suite 270, Durango, CO 81301.