McLeod, Margaret, 1902-1989.

Margaret S. McLeod lived an adventurous life atypical of women of her time. The youngest of Murdock and Elizabeth McLeod's seven children, she was born February 1, 1902, in Kingsley, Oregon. Raised in The Dalles, Oregon, she attended Oregon Agricultural College (now Oregon State University), receiving a B.S. in vocational education in 1926. For the next twenty years, McLeod traveled extensively in Europe, South America, and the Pacific; she worked in Hawaii as a secretary for Livingston Brothers, taught physical education at a high school in San Jose, California, and spent two years in Balboa, Panama, as an exchange teacher and Red Cross worker.

In January 1943, McLeod traveled to England with the Club Service, an American National Red Cross program that provided soldiers with recreational opportunities during World War II. Her first post was on a Red Cross Clubmobile, a mobile unit that distributed coffee and doughnuts to troops and screened films on military bases. Later in the war, she served as program director for a Red Cross Club, a stationary unit that arranged dances, meals, games, performances, and other events for soldiers. After the invasion of Normandy, McLeod was transferred to France, where she helped establish a new club. She concluded her work with the Club Service in Germany and returned to the United States in October 1945.

After the war's end, McLeod settled in San Francisco, California, where she was employed as a social worker. She was married twice, first to Fred Moritz in 1949, then to Gustav Horwege in 1964. She returned to Europe with Horwege, visiting his native country, Germany. Late in life, she left Walnut Creek, California, to return to Oregon, living in Milwaukie until her death in March 1989.

From the guide to the Margaret McLeod papers, 1942-1946, (Oregon Historical Society)