Margaret Johnson Tillman

Margaret Elsie Tillman (Johnson) died peacefully at her home in Jacksonville FL on February 27, 2022, at the age of 94. She was preceded in death by her beloved husband Curtis and her son Bruce. Margaret is survived by her daughters Nancy Tillman and Leigh Tillman Partington (George), and granddaughters Eleanor and Audrey Partington.

Margaret was born in Jacksonville, Florida on April 11 to Elsie Ruth Johnson (Brakefield) and Elisha Cleveland (E.C.) Johnson of Senoia and Hogansville, Georgia respectively. E.C. was an Auburn University-educated chemist for the Armour Fertilizer Company and Elsie was a graduate of the Georgia Normal & Industrial College in Milledgeville GA and a schoolteacher. Margaret was a bit of a tomboy and loved being outdoors with her best friend and next door neighbor Jeanne Sutton.

Margaret began dating Curtis their senior year (1944-45) at Andrew Jackson High School in Jacksonville, FL. She continued her education at Auburn University (which was then known as The Alabama Polytechnic Institute), graduating in December 1948 with a B.S. in English. She married Curtis on March 19, 1949 and they settled in Atlanta, where Curtis continued to work on his combined undergraduate and law degree from Emory University, which he completed in 1951. Margaret’s top priority was helping Curtis to build his career as a lawyer, as a juvenile court judge and finally as Superior Court judge in DeKalb Co. After working for the federal probation office in Atlanta as a clerk, she became a stay-at-home mom to Curtis Bruce (1957), Nancy Virginia (1960), and Margaret Leigh (1966). They made many friends in their Avondale Estates neighborhood and then in 1969, built a larger house in the Northlake area of DeKalb County. In 1978, Margaret turned years of volunteering in school libraries into a second career as a paraprofessional for DeKalb County Public Schools.

Margaret and Curtis were members of Decatur First United Methodist Church for over 40 years. Margaret loved gardening and spent many hours outside planting, weeding, and puttering. Her yard was a haven for birds (but not squirrels) and she had a particular affection for the chickadees and cardinals that visited her feeder. Sighting the first hummingbird of the season was always cause for celebration. She was a member of a neighborhood sewing group for 34 years and made beautiful quilts and quilted pillows. She had an artistic spirit and tried everything from painting on tinware in the 1960s to candlewicking and making corn husk dolls in the 1970s and 80s. She learned to weave baskets and cane-bottomed chairs. She refinished furniture, knitted, crocheted, and made Christmas ornaments, but sewing was always her first love and she made many clothes for her daughters and for dolls, along with curtains, napkins, placemats, and quilts. Margaret was an excellent home cook, particularly renowned for her pound cakes. She and Curtis loved to browse antique stores and collected primitive early American furniture.

Margaret loved to read, especially mysteries, from Agatha Christie and P.D. James to first-person POV serial killer thrillers that everyone else in the family found too scary.

She never left the house without lipstick on, but she was most comfortable in old jeans and Keds in the garden. She loved to root for her Auburn Tigers on tv. She loved a vodka tonic at the end of the day. She loved cats and walking on the beach. She was a wonderful mother. She taught us to always put family first and that the best homes are made from love, not money. She was the ultimate Southern hostess and taught both of her daughters the importance of keeping

things simple but getting the details right. She didn’t like being the center of attention, preferring to work behind the scenes and leave the limelight to Curtis, who died the day before her birthday in 1997 after 49 years of marriage.

She also loved to travel. She and Curtis traveled all over the United States, but were not able to fulfill a lifelong dream to travel to England and Scotland. In 1998, she traveled to England with her son-in-law George to meet up with Leigh who was finishing up six weeks as a teaching assistant with the Emory summer abroad program in Oxford and they toured London, saw a play in Stratford, and explored the Scottish countryside. When Eleanor (1999) and Audrey (2001) were born, she became an enthusiastic and devoted grandmother. Eleanor and Audrey spent many happy hours at their grandmother’s house watching videotaped episodes of Reading Rainbow and Mr. Rogers, eating lunch and drinking sweet tea on the screened porch, and playing in the yard while their “Granny” gardened.

In 2007, Margaret moved from Atlanta back to Jacksonville to live across the street from Nancy. They traveled to Spain together twice when Margaret was in her 80s, the second time with the Partingtons, and enjoyed other adventures together. She spent as much time as she could with her beloved granddaughters Eleanor and Audrey. As Margaret’s health began to fail, Nancy became her caregiver as well and Nancy’s devotion allowed Margaret to remain in her home, safe and cared for, until her death. We are so grateful for her excellent caregivers in Jacksonville, without whom she could not have remained at home: Marylou, Lexy, and Dady. They kept her company and cared for both her and her house. Margaret loved them and they loved her, especially her sweet disposition and dry sense of humor, both of which she kept until the end.

Flowers are welcome or contributions in Margaret Tillman’s memory can be made to the Georgia Audubon Society.