Margaret Jean Kees, born January 15, 1933 in Williamsburg, Ohio, the daughter of the late Edward and Alma (Grimmelsmann) Kees, passed peacefully, at 92 in DeBary, Florida, February 27, 2025.
The fifth born of seven children, she had four older brothers now deceased, Albert (Rosemary), Leonard, Richard (Betty), and George (Aloha) Kees. Her sister, Janet Preston is also predeceased. She has one surviving sister, Dorothy (Deke) Boyd.
Her early years were spent on the farm, then the family moved into the city of Cincinnati. When her father left her mother, Margaret put school on hold to help raise her two younger sisters. She later earned her GED and worked as a secretary. During the time she was working for the David J. Joseph company, she met the love of her life, the late Lawrence Louis Schuster (2002). She encouraged him to take a job at her employer in the accounting department, where he worked until retirement. They married in 1954 and settled in Southgate, Kentucky. She is survived by her three children, Lawrence Steven, (Catherine Matteoli), Margaret Ellen, (Gregory Peeno), and Debra Ann, (Debey Von) (late Eric Von Gruber) (Edward F. Copes), her three grandchildren, Andrew (Lisa), Tracy, and Joseph (Nicole) Schuster, and four great grandchildren, Zoey, Colin, Jane, and Evie Schuster.
She was active in her children’s early lives, serving as Kindergarten Room Mother at Southgate Public, as Den Mother for the Boy Scout troops, and Secretary of the Golden Knights Drum and Bugle Corps where they all performed. She played piano and encouraged her children to play as well. With her husband on alto sax, it was a musical family.
After her children were established in school, Margaret returned to work part-time at Shillito’s in downtown Cincinnati in the Collections department. She later worked as a Temporary and lastly as an Administrative Assistant for the IRS in Covington, Kentucky. After her dear husband passed, she moved to Florida to enjoy her retirement years, meeting many people who would become dear friends. She considered Marilyn as an adopted daughter, forming a special bond. Ann and Eddie were like family at the retirement community. Tanisha was much more than a caregiver.
Margaret loved gardening, creating a magical environment, adorning her flowerbeds with gnomes and other fun decorations. Margaret will be remembered for her outgoing personality and secretly buying meals in restaurants, looking for those in need or those who should be thanked for their service. A giving person and never meeting a stranger, she will be dearly missed by all those who knew and loved her, especially the wonderful staff at DeBary Health and Rehabilitation Center, where she spent the last years of her long, joy-filled life.
There will be no service. She will join her loving and comedic late husband, Larry, in the Mausoleum at the Evergreen Cemetery in Southgate, Kentucky they chose together. They will lie feet to feet, since they decided neither wanted to smell the others’ feet for eternity.
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