New Richland Star Editor and Publisher, Margaret Anne (Robinson) Engesser, age 81, lost her battle to cancer on Tuesday, June 24, 2003. She died peacefully at Hillcrest Healthcare Center in Mankato.

Visitation will be held on Friday, June 27, from 4-7 p.m. at the Friedrich Funeral Home in New Richland. Funeral services will be at 11 a.m. Saturday, June 28, at St. Peter’s Lutheran Church, New Richland, the Rev. Phillip A. Lewison officiating. Interment will be in the Greenhill Cemetery, St. Peter.

Memorials are preferred to the New Richland Care Center, the Margaret A. Engesser Scholarship and St. Peter’s Lutheran Church Sunday School.

Margaret was born on Jan. 9, 1922, at her grandparents’ (Dan and Ada Bixby) farm in Kingston Township, Meeker County, to Doris (Bixby) and Sherrill E. Robinson. She attended school at Kimball, Cherry Township, Fairfax, Nakomis Junior High School, Virginia and Central High School in Duluth. She graduated from Barnum High School in 1940 and attended the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, and St. Luke’s School of Nursing, Duluth. Margaret began her career as a registered nurse at the Community Hospital of St. Peter. She also worked as a private duty nurse before becoming a charge nurse at the St. Peter State Hospital.

On Oct. 27, 1946, she was united in marriage to Emmett H. Engesser of St. Peter, where Emmett was employed at the St. Peter Herald. She and Emmett purchased the New Richland Star from C. W. Brown in March 1955. They operated the newspaper together until August 1984, when Emmett became ill. Margaret continued the operation of the Star until Dec. 31, 2002. The New Richland Star received many state and national awards.

Margaret was a member of St. Peter’s Lutheran Church where she taught Sunday School for 44 years. She was an active member in the Waseca County DFL party, past president of the New Richland American Legion Auxiliary and a member of the New Richland Commercial Club. She served as the mayor of New Richland from 1972-1981 and was the first woman appointed to the Region Nine Commission (1972). During her tenure as mayor, the community constructed the New Richland Care Center, and the Legion Baseball/Softball Field complex. She was instrumental in the forming of a co-op between the city of New Richland and the New Richland Public Schools to build an ice rink and tennis courts. Margaret served as Grand Marshall of the New Richland Farm City Day Celebration in 1997, the Waldorf Days Grand Marshall in 1998, and the Pemberton Grand Marshall. She was awarded the WCCO Good Neighbor award in November 2001 and was chosen as the Honorary Chairperson of the Waseca County Relay for Life Fund-raiser in 2002.

Margaret is survived by four children: John and his wife Connie of Grand Rapids, Minn., Cheryl Kortuem and her husband Claire Hovland of Andover, Minn., the Rev. Tom and his wife the Rev. Laurie of Shell Lake, Wis., and Sandi and her husband Dr. James Jessen of Mankato; 11 grandchildren: John Mark, Heidi, Michael and Eric Engesser, Gabriel, Nathan, Thomas and Jesse Kortuem, and Jeremy, Jennifer (Gartner) and Nickolas Jessen; one adopted grandson, Ramon Pinero; three great-grandchildren: Nathan, Justin and Megan Engesser; one sister, Eleanor and her husband Douglas Ellingsen of Duluth; one brother, Dr. Gerald Robinson and his wife Betty of Tampa, Fla.; one brother-in-law, Harold Ebel of Elkader, Iowa; two sisters-in-law: Grace Engesser Paquette of St. Peter, and Zola Engesser Noteboom and her husband Arthur of St. Paul; and many nieces and nephews.

She was preceded in death by her husband, her parents, and one sister, Dorothy (Robinson) Ebel.