MARGARET LUCILLE (WEHLING) HUTT, 87,

on May 19,2008, peacefully made her trip home to her Father in Heaven from her home in Sahuarita. Family and friends gathered for her funeral Mass on May 24, 2008, at Our Lady of the Valley Catholic Church in Green Valley, with Father Maldonado as Celebrant. She will be interred at the Green Valley Mortuary.

Margaret was born on Jan. 19, 1921, in Broken Bow, Neb., the daughter of Anna and Charles Wehling. She grew up on a farm outside of Broken Bow and graduated from Broken Bow High School in 1938 with a teaching certificate.

In order to fulfill her lifelong dream of becoming a pilot, she taught school in Nebraska, saving money from her $50 a month salary for flying lessons at the Hastings, Neb. airport, In 1939, shortly after her 18th birthday, she became the youngest woman in Nebraska history to obtain her private pilot’s license. She continued her flight training, gaining her instructor’s licenses in radio, navigation and ground rules and her parachute rigger’s license. She taught ground school for young officers going into the U.S. Army Air Corps.

On April 17, 1941, at Sacred Heart Church in Van Nuys, Calif., Margaret married John Hutt, a native of Broken Bow who shared her love of flying. The couple moved to Omaha, Neb., where John worked at a bomber plant until enlisting in the Army Air Corps as a pilot immediately after the bombing at Pearl Harbor. The couple’s first child, Louise Keane of Sahuarita, was born in Omaha in July, 1942.

Margaret also did her part for the United States during WWII, packing parachutes in Great Falls, Mont. Their second daughter, Shirley Tolsdorf of Calhan, Colo., was bom in Broken Bow in 1945, during John’s third tour of duty, flying cargo planes “over the hump” from Karachi, India to China.

Following the War, the couple moved to Newcastle, Wyo. Two sons, Robert and Allan, and a third daughter, Wanda Pridgen, were born in 1948, 1952 and 1960, respectively. On their homestead, the Hutt family built everything from scratch: the house, fences, corrals, a barn, a chicken house and a shop. They planted trees and dammed Robbers Roost Creek to make a reservoir for the livestock and for the family’s water supply. The family’s 2,000 chickens provided eggs and meat for the local grocery.

Margaret left Newcastle in January 1985, moving to Calhan to help Wanda care for her newborn daughter, Jamie, after Wanda’s husband was killed in an auto accident. She lived there until 1996, when she moved to the home of Louise and Joe Keane in Sahuarita.

Though “retired,” Margaret was anything but retiring in Sahuarita. She volunteered for the Sahuarita Police Department where she took fingerprints and did filing; Friends in Deed, where she ran the equipment room and drove people to medical appointments; Habitat for Humanity; and OLV Catholic Church, where she made sandwiches for the homeless and served as a sponsor in the RCIA program. Along the way, she collected friends and touched the lives of many people.

Margaret is survived by her sister Viola Brim; her five children: Louise Keane (Joe), Shirley Tolsdorf, Bob Hutt (Hiroko), Allan Hutt (Rachel Nicholson), and Wanda Pridgen; grandchildren Michael and Sean Keane, Troy and Tim Barstad, Wendy Kane, Cameron Tolsdorf, Lester, Ken and Kasey Hutt, Marie and Anna Nicholson-Hutt, Jamie Pridgen, Erika and Matthew Bicknase; and great-grandchildren David, Owen and Duncan Keane, Samantha Keane, Ivy Anderson, and Mahnoor Haseeb.

She was preceded in death by her husband; her parents; her sister Theresa Gunther; brother Charles Wehling; and beloved grandson Robert Keane.

Margaret’s family would like to extend their deepest gratitude and thanks to Carondelet Hospice.

In lieu of flowers, you may wish to donate to Boys Town or the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.