Margaret Goddard Holt papers

Margaret Goddard Holt was born on October 4, 1911 in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania to Fanny Whiting Reed and Harold Clarke Goddard, professor of English at Swarthmore College; she had one sister, Eleanor Goddard Worthen. She was raised a Quaker and absorbed the values of that tradition, but never joined the Society of Friends. She was also guided by Zen Buddhism, especially the teachings of Lao Tse. After graduating from Swarthmore High School in 1929, she studied art at various institutions, including the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, the Art Students' League in New York City, and the Cummington (Massachusetts) School of the Arts. She taught at the Shady Hill School in Cambridge, Massachusetts and at the School in Rose Valley in Rose Valley, Pennsylvania (both progressive schools), prior to her marriage in 1939 to Lee Elbert Holt (March 23, 1912 - January 23, 2004). The Holts were married for sixty-four years and had two children, Geoffrey Lincoln and Alison. In 1947, after living in Indiana, Wisconsin, New York and Connecticut, the Holts settled in Springfield, Massachusetts, where Lee taught English at American International College and Margaret worked part-time teaching art therapy to the handicapped at United Cerebral Palsy and Munson State Hospital. They moved to Amherst, Massachusetts in 1977. After the World War II bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the beginnings of the Cold War, Margaret Holt began her lifetime of work in peace and justice activism. She helped organize some of the major social justice demonstrations of the 1960s, including the Poor People's Campaign in Washington, D.C. in 1963; coordinated, with Lee, frequent vigils in Springfield from 1967 to 1972 in protest of the Vietnam War; co-founded the Springfield chapter of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom; was a pivotal member of the Gray Panthers of the Pioneer Valley; and, beginning in 2000, corresponded weekly with death row prisoners, in addition to providing occasional financial support to their families. With Lee, Margaret Holt helped establish the Amherst (Massachusetts) Vigil for a Nuclear Free World in 1979 and from that time forward, regardless of weather, she attended weekly noon Sunday vigils on the Amherst Town Common. Margaret Holt died in Amherst, Massachusetts on January 1, 2004.

Family members as a group (Creatures)

Ballou, Pauline Goddard (Pollywog, Frog): paternal aunt of Margaret Holt

Ballou, Austin (Ostrich): husband of Pauline Goddard Ballou

Goddard, Fanny Whiting Reed (Moppy, Twain): mother of Margaret Holt

Goddard, Florence Louise: (Rattlesnake, Rattle): paternal aunt of Margaret Holt

Goddard, Harold Clarke (Uncle Gawky, Poppy, Twain): father of Margaret Holt

Goddard, Mary Azooba Clarke (Zoobie): paternal grandmother of Margaret Holt

Holt, Alison: daughter of Margaret Holt

Holt, Daisy: mother of Lee E. Holt

Holt, Florence: sister of Lee E. Holt

Holt, Geoffrey Lincoln: son of Margaret Holt

Holt, Helen: sister of Lee E. Holt

Holt, Lee Cone: father of Lee E. Holt

Holt, Margaret Goddard (Smig)

Reed, Lewis: brother of Fanny Whiting Reed Goddard, m. Isabel

Uretz, Violet: cousin of Lee E. Holt

Walker, Florence Hammersly: cousin of Margaret Holt

Worthen, Eleanor Goddard (Armadillo): sister of Margaret Holt, m. Eugene Mark Worthen

Worthen, Helena Harlow (Holly): niece of Margaret Holt, daughter of Eleanor and Mark Worthen, m. Joseph Berry

Worthen, Hilary: nephew of Margaret Holt, son of Eleanor and Mark Worthen m. Kathy Weingarten

Worthen, Ben: son of Hilary Worthen and Kathy Weingarten

Worthen, Miranda: daughter of Hilary Worthen and Kathy Weingarten

Worthen, Gabrielle Zim (Gabi): daughter of Helena Harlow Worthen and Joseph Berry, m. David Kreme