Margaret Dobrzanski

Margaret E. Dobrzanski, 98, decades-long resident of Olivette, died Sept. 18 at Bishop Drumm Nursing Home in Johnston, Iowa. Graveside services are at 3 p.m. Friday at St. Paul's Evangelical Cemetery at Olive Blvd. and Warson Road in Olivette. Born to Clarence Stauffer and Edna Mitchell Stauffer in Astoria, IL, on Jan. 3, 1921, she was was a graduate of Monticello College with a degree in fine arts and was a talented potter. She was married to Otto Christoph Dobrzanski for 35 years before his death in 1984, and the two made their home on family property in Olivette. A sweet, artistic woman and devoted wife, she lived up to her family nickname, "Honey." Nieces and nephews agree that their childhoods included happy hours spent in Margaret's kitchen, talking, cooking, and doing schoolwork. Family ties and history were paramount to her, so she wanted to be buried next to her beloved husband in a family plot that includes her husband's parents and his grandfather, whose family were early settlers of Ladue. So close was she to the family that her niece, Denise, has always referred to her as "my second mother." Survivors include her sister-in-law and a number of nieces and nephews.