Margaret A. Lawson

Margaret A. Lawson, 93, passed away on Tuesday, October 3, 2023, peacefully at her home in Stillwater. Dighton Marler Funeral Home is entrusted with arrangements.

Margaret was born on March 7th, 1930, in Devol, Oklahoma, to Louie and Ella Allgood. She grew up picking cotton and farming with her younger siblings in and around Cookietown, Oklahoma. She would often tell stories of how she and her brother would skip school to hunt to earn money for the family. While attending Union Valley High School she would learn and become quite an accomplished basketball player, earning the respect and fear of her opponents.

Following high school, Margaret left the family farm to eventually raise her own family, living in various places in Oklahoma, Kansas, and South Carolina. It was in Columbia, South Carolina, that she found her own place, raising her two sons, Mike and Ned McLafferty. She worked at GE and various side jobs in the Columbia area, where she met and married the love of her life, Don E. Lawson. Following his retirement from the military in 1975, they moved to Stillwater, Oklahoma, to be closer to her family. Here she found work as an Avon Lady, something she enjoyed. In 1977 she began a new job working as a tax preparer for H&R Block. After about five years she embarked out on her own and started Stillwater Tax Service and grew her own business, finally retiring in 2014. Margaret also kept busy year-round with her small lawn care business until she was 83.

She enjoyed many hobbies and was gifted in crocheting and gardening. Margaret was also the family cook for all her kids and grandchildren, hosting elaborate home-cooked holiday meals. Her most famous dish was her cornbread dressing. She will be remembered as the rock of the family, always there for anyone and making the impossible possible.

She is survived by her sons, Ned McLafferty of Fayetteville, Arkansas, and Ricky Lawson of Stillwater, Oklahoma, her six grandchildren, Tiffany Sizemore, D’anna Arnett, Nathan Lawson, Christy Wendel, Scotty McLafferty, Jacob McLafferty, nine great-grandchildren, and her brother, Ferris Allgood of Sandy, Utah and sister Ellena Hand of Huntsville, Alabama.

Margaret was preceded in death by her husband, Don Lawson, and her son, Mike McLafferty.

The family will hold a private service. In lieu of flowers, please donate to The Michael J. Fox Foundation.

Condolences may be sent to the family via an online guestbook at www.dightonmarler.com.