Margaret Ann Esper Wingerter Obituary

Margaret Ann Esper Wingerter attended Genoa Area High School in Genoa, OH. View the obituary, post a memory, or share a photo about Margaret Ann Esper Wingerter.

Graduation Year	Class of 1978
Date of Passing	Sep 03, 2011
About	Margaret Ann Wingerter, 50, of Oregon, Ohio passed away on Saturday, September 3, 2011 at the Hospice of Northwest Ohio Perrysburg Center. She was born on November 18, 1960 in Toledo, Ohio to Ed and Camilla Esper. Margaret was a 1978 graduate of Genoa High School and worked for the National Family Opinion conducting market research for over 20 years. She had a special love for dogs, especially the Alaskan Mal. Margaret and her husband were involved with the Alaskan Malamute Rescue for many years and she wrote many poems of encouragement for people who grieve for the loss of their dogs. Margaret is survived by her loving husband of 30 years, Donald Wingerter; mother, Camilla Meek; brother, John Meek and step sister, Shelly Pomerson. She was preceded in death by her father. Family and friends may visit Freck Funeral Chapel, 1155 S. Wynn Rd in Oregon on Tuesday, September 6, 2011 from 2-8 p.m. were the rosary will be recited at 7 p.m. Funeral services will begin in the funeral home on Wednesday at 9:30 a.m. continuing on with the funeral Mass at Sacred Heart Catholic Church at 10:30 a.m. Burial will follow at St. Ignatius Catholic Church Cemetery. Memorial contributions may be made to Ovarian Cancer Research Fund. Margaret Ann Wingerter of Oregon, a market researcher and a dog-rescue volunteer who wrote poems of encouragement for people who had lost their dogs, died of cancer Saturday in the Hospice of Northwest Ohio in Perrysburg Township. She was 50. Mrs. Wingerter was employed as a market researcher for National Family Opinion in Northwood for more than 20 years until the company terminated her position in the 1990s. She also volunteered with dog-rescue centers, most recently - since about five years ago - with the Ohio Alaskan Malamute Rescue, helping identify Alaskan malamutes at the Lucas County dog pound, where she often helped transfer them to foster homes throughout Ohio. Her love for the Alaskan malamute began in the mid-1980s when a dog walked into her husband's office. The couple later identified the dog as an Alaskan malamute with the help of experts, eventually adopting the dog that later died. The couple has since owned two other malamutes, her husband of 30 years Donald Wingerter said. The poems that she wrote several years ago for Golden Years Alaskan Malamute Rescue in Muskegon, Mich., were published on its Web site, Mr. Wingerter said. "As a poet, she had requests from all over the United States, and she never turned one down," he said. "Her dogs were an extension of her family, and she loved them as family members." In one poem, Mrs. Wingerter wrote about the meeting after death of two Alaskan Malmutes, Babe and Mercy Mercy Me, who had been friends in life: "Mercy Mercy Me was held closely as she was gently guided over / the Bridge to that place where all is new again. And much to / her joy and excitement the first sound she heard was the / call to play emitted by none other than Babe her best, special friend!" Though Mrs. Wingerter had many friends whom she cared about, she felt as strongly for strangers who she knew had suffered tragedies and whom she knew she would never meet, such as starving children in Africa whom she had seen on television, her husband said. "She had a deep, caring heart that would hurt for others like you don't believe. She was a very sensitive person and she loved deeply. And most of all she was devoted to God and me, her husband," he said. A Toledo native, Mrs. Wingerter graduated from Genoa High School in 1978 and later attended what now is Owens Community College and the University of Toledo. She was a longtime member of Sacred Heart Catholic Church in East Toledo. Surviving are her husband, Donald Wingerter, mother, Camilla Meek, brother, John Meek, and stepsister, Shelly Pomerson. Visitation will be at 2 p.m. Tuesday at Freck Funeral Chapel, 1155 South Wynn Rd., Oregon, where a Rosary will be recited at 7 p.m. Funeral services will be at 9 a.m. Wednesday at the funeral home and 10:30 in the church. The family suggests tributes to the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund.