The love was poured out for Margaret as we celebrated her life
How can one summarize a 33 year friendship? It’s nearly impossible…but in this personal blog I wanted to share the personal memories I shared at Margaret Longhill’s funeral service held today in Citrus Springs at the St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church. Every one there had their own special memories of this special lady, these are just some of mine.
Eulogy from Donna Green-Townsend for Margaret Longhill March 6, 2018
“To one who bears the sweetest name and adds a luster to the same…who shares my joys, who cheers when sad, the greatest friend I ever had, ”
It’s a poem etched on a pillow my grandmother had years ago that describes how I feel about Margaret.
When I was sad and called Margaret on the phone to share something I was going through she would say, “You just pack your overnight bag and come over.” She’d have chicken soup waiting and a glass of wine and listen. We’d sit in the river room and look out over the Withlacoochee and Rainbow Rivers and talk, sometimes for hours. It was the best medicine.
The same was true if I was happy. She shared my joys.
When I was working on the documentary, “Apalachicola Doin’ Time,” it was Margaret that I called to share my excitement about the work in progress…a one-hour documentary that incorporated Florida music about rivers along with the story about the Tri-State Water War over the Apalachicola River.
We squirreled ourselves into the little apartment where John and DeeDee Semmes live now…away from phone distractions and she listened to every word uninterrupted. When the documentary won a National Edward R. Murrow Award, Margaret and Mem Semmes traveled to Gainesville to join in the celebration. She then gave the musicians stage time at the Will McLean Festival to sing their Florida songs, songs inspired by Will McLean’s desire to “Save Florida Through Music.”
I first met Margaret the same week I first met Will McLean in November, 1985. She was there in the audience when I sang “Hold Back the Waters” with Will and Murphy Henry. It was a thrill of a lifetime for me… so you see, she shared my joy.
She was there on the front row at Will’s Memorial Service in that same Thomas Center, one of the saddest times I can remember. We all walked down to the Ocklawaha River by Gore’s Landing, Will’s favorite camping spot, that January 24th, 1990 singing Amazing Grace and dispersed Will’s ashes into the river. Our friends were there- Don Grooms, Bobby Hicks, Dale Crider and many others. My two daughters, now 30 and 29 were just 1 ½ and 3 that day as we all helped Will cross over to somewhere in the wind. Now today we are helping Margaret cross over.
When my son Lee came along it was Margaret, Mem and Jon who encouraged him in his love for music and helped him purchase his first guitar. Lee is now 24 and performing at the Will McLean Festival as so many other young people are with Margaret’s loving encouragement and direction.
In Margaret’s endeavor to keep Will McLean’s songs alive for the next generation, my daughter Jessie and son Lee recorded two of Will’s songs on a CD: Macclenny Farewell and Crying Bird. Now my oldest daughter Ellie has a baby of her own. Emeline Rose can be quieted by simply playing, “Crying Bird” on that CD. I can hear Ellie saying it now, “Hurry mom, put on Crying Bird.”
Two favorite funny memories are Margaret’s willingness to allow my son Lee at around 7 years old to bring dog owners and their pets on stage at the Will McLean Festival. He’d spent the day interviewing festival goers about their pets with Margaret’s approval. That night he brought up the largest dog, smallest dog and most unique dog and gave them prizes- what else but folk CDs. That was Lee’s first stage appearance.
Later at the age of 90 Margaret drove herself to Alachua to celebrate Lee’s 18th birthday at Conestogas Restaurant and consumed giant stogie burgers with the rest of us.
She attended my daughter Ellie’s wedding and celebrated the birth of Ellie’s first child with a stuffed musical lamb that now soothes my granddaughter to sleep at night.
She also spent the night with my family in Cross Creek and toured the Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings home… and on another trip to Cross Creek we showed up at a campfire jam on New Year’s Eve at Dale Crider’s home in Windsor, famous for picking parties.
While in Cross Creek In July of 2010, we spent time at the Twin Lakes Fish Camp looking out over Lochloosa Lake and a beautiful dragonfly befriended us. In a true dragonfly encounter we spent at least a half hour passing the beautiful creature back and forth from my finger to hers and my friend Priscilla Hall.
1997 through many years of monthly Sunday Samplers, music was alive on Margaret and Mem’s front patio. Margaret was always busy handing out bongo drums and shakers so everyone could participate in the music making. I miss those music jams so much.
In 2004 when Hurricane Jeanne forced the cancellation of Amy Carol Webb’s Sunday Sampler concert many just headed to Margaret’s for a private concert. As a news gal I had to work covering the storm, so Margaret called me on the phone and had Amy serenade me in a song or two.
Margaret rarely missed calling me on birthdays to sing happy birthday to me. I treasured those calls.
Through many Will McLean Music Festivals and Florida Folk Festivals she allowed me to plug an extension cord into her RV, just as Will McLean did when he’d travel around to see his friends, allowing us both to have a fan and a light.
And of course Margaret always had the coffee pot ready for all who were camped with her.
At one of the last Florida Folk Festivals that Margaret was able to attend there was a gullywasher of a storm, so many of us tent campers piled into Margaret’s RV. And in what seems so natural, we wrote a song together about the music in the rain and thunder and lightning.
I am honored to be allowed to speak about her today. She has been a true confidant and friend to me and my family for 33 years, through all our birthdays and weddings, joys and sadness. I will feel her presence in my life forever as I know today, as Will McLean would say, she is “somewhere in the wind.” Love you Margaret!
On Sunday, March 11, 2018, musicians and friends gathered on the Magnolia Stage at the Will McLean Festival to sing the final hymn to say goodbye to the Matriarch of Florida Folk, Margaret Longhill. Look very closely and you will see a dragonfly make an appearance on the 4th verse of Amazing Grace on the line, “bright shining as the sun” on my microphone, (the 2nd to last mic from the right). It only flew away when I moved my finger toward it at the end of the song. Margaret loved dragonflies.
As you can see in this picture (and as mentioned above), once while sitting at the Twin Lakes Fish Camp in Cross Creek overlooking Lochloosa Lake, a blue dragonfly landed on her hand. For the next half-hour Margaret passed the dragonfly from her finger to me and friend Priscilla Hall. So it seemed so special that one would land on my microphone during Amazing Grace. Many people call dragonflies “skeeter hawks.” I like to think of Margaret as a “Skeeter Hawk” now flying with her dear friend Will McLean who always said his soul was a hawk. Now they’re both “somewhere in the wind.”