December 9, 1958 – October 5, 2006

Margaret Mary Ewing, 47, a retail saleswoman and a passionate genealogist, died of liver cancer Oct. 5 at her home in Decatur, Ga.

Miss Ewing, who lived in Fairfax City for 20 years, also cared for her ailing parents until their deaths, and then for an aged aunt in Georgia while also working for department stores there.

The daughter of an Army officer, she was born in Baltimore and grew up overseas and in Fairfax. She graduated from Robinson High School in Fairfax and attended Northern Virginia Community College. She worked at the old Woodward & Lothrop department store, as well as other retail establishments, until moving to Georgia in 1983.

On a family trip to Ireland, she met relatives of her great- grandmother, who emigrated from County Cork to Savannah, Ga., when she was 16. This experience inspired Miss Ewing to trace her family’s history, which became the great passion of her life. She traveled often throughout Georgia, Tennessee and Virginia, meticulously checking records and visiting home sites and cemeteries. She delighted in visiting, corresponding and talking with family members, no matter how distant the relation.

Because of her dedication to keeping abreast of all family members’ activities, she was the person who kept the family together in good times and bad, said a brother.

Survivors include four brothers, Laurence Lee Ewing of Wilmington, N.C., Gerald H. Ewing of Orlando, Charles G. Ewing Jr. of New York and David Ewing of Nashville.