Longtime Sultan resident, historian and knitter recalled

Published 12:01 am Sunday, June 12, 2011

In 1935, Margaret Kime’s aunt and her mother decided women who lived in rural Sultan needed to get acquainted.

They sent out penny postcards inviting all to come visit on the first Wednesday of the month. Neighbors walked to the first meeting with their best salads, desserts or hot dishes, to

ddlers and mending. Through the decades, gatherings became a time to make flannel diapers and darn socks.

Margaret A. Kime, the last charter member of the Wednesday P.M. Group of Winter’s Lake, died May 5 at Madeleine Villa Health Care Center in Marysville, 20 days short of turning 100.

She was born May 25, 1911, in Windsor, Mo., to Clarence and Margaret Johnson. The family moved to Sultan in 1924 and she graduated from Sultan High School in 1928.

She is survived by her brother, Clarence Johnson of Junction City, Ore.; two grandchildren, Erin and Mathew McCarty of Bellevue; and numerous nieces and nephews.

She was preceded in death by her two sons, Bill Snyder and John McCarty; brothers Charles and O. Frank Johnson; and her husband, Edwin Kime.

Margaret Kime was considered a Sultan historian and lived there off and on for more than 70 years. Widowed in 1950, she moved to Seattle with her two sons and worked for IBM doing data processing. She and Ed Kime married in 1968, and after traveling they retired and lived in Gold Bar, Sultan, Arlington and Everett.

When you outlive most of your family, it’s important to have the support of friends. Nance Weis bought yarn from Kime in Gold Bar about 20 years ago.

“Margaret was a knitter extraordinaire at the time,” Weis said. “Every available space in her home was storage for her yarn.”

They became friends and Weis was supportive of Kime. Mark Hinricksen was a newer friend, who met Kime when she was his mother’s roommate at Madeleine Villa.

Hinricksen said he enjoyed Kime’s long memory, including stories from World War I. When Kime was a youngster and her father worked the railroad telegraph, her father was the first person in town to know the war had ended.

“Margaret knew more about accounting than anyone I ever saw,” Hinricksen said. “She loved to talk about money and taxes. It was her favorite subject and she really knew what she was talking about.”

Hinricksen said Kime made him laugh for hours with her stories.

“I was shocked when I saw her date of birth as being 1911,” he said. “At first I thought it was a typo of some sort. She had perfect long-term and short-term memory.”

She never forgot a name, he said.

“She was a grand old gal,” Hinricksen said.

When Kime lived in Everett senior housing, she was interviewed by The Herald.

“They say I’m a people person,” she said. “If you get lonesome, just walk out your door and go down the hall. There are plenty of nice people around here.”

Every morning, folks at the complex gathered for coffee. There was an evening gab fest in the library which they call the yak room.

“I’m the one who gets around and gets acquainted,” Kime said. “I’ve always enjoyed being involved with people.”

When Kime was 99½, Hinricksen said, she decided it was time to move out on her own. She found her own apartment and made the move.

She was welcomed back to Madeleine Villa about five weeks later.

If she had a failing, it was TV shopping, Weis said. Kime was a frequent buyer of products on cable shopping channels.

“She saw what she liked and bought it,” Weis said. “I must have returned half of those items for her.”

Weis kept Kime supplied with her favorite potato chips. Her 100th birthday party in Marysville was a highlight of Kime’s life.

Kime asked that there be no funeral after her death.

“She called the party her living memorial.” Weis said.

Kristi O’Harran: 425-339-3451; oharran@heraldnet.com.