Career

Margo  attended St John's Lutheran School in Newburg her first 4 years.  She went to Kewaskum high school first then graduated from West Bend in 1966.  School was difficult as she stuttered, had dyslexia and had a very difficult time writing - all from her cerebral palsy due to being a breech birth that had oxygen cut off to the brain as well as both hips broken and her back damaged.  It made all of her life much more difficult than for the average person, including being in a body cast the six months of her life and then using leg braces and having a great deal of physical therapy to get walking and functioning.  She overcame all of that... 

Her first job was a filing clerk for the Washington County Historical society. Then she moved to a factory job where she helped assemble automobile parts.  As a bright person, she realized she needed a better job and went to the training for being a Certified Nursing Assistant. 

 December 2, 1970 she began working as a CNA at the Washington County Samaritan Nursing home where she met and married Russ Hanson.  

After 2 years, Russ and Margo moved to Madison, WI where Russ attended the UW and Margo worked as a private CNA for Fred Barnes the next 18 months.  The couple then moved to Washington Island, WI where Russ was a teacher.  Margo worked for a time at the hotel and when that closed for winter, volunteered at the school helping with the k-3 grades.  She found herself pregnant while on the Island.  

 The Fall of 1975 the couple moved to Goodman, WI where Russ taught and Margo had Scott on September 13, 1975.  She stayed home with him the next three years.  

 The next move was to Amery, WI where Russ taught for 2 years and Margo took a CNA position in Amery.  In 1980, the couple moved to Rochester, MN where Russ worked at Mayo the next 25 years.  Margo first worked at Mayo as a physical therapy aide, then went to Rochester Technical College with a two year program in horticulture..  

The move to Pine Island in 1991 provided room to build a small greenhouse and she started Geraniums By Margo as well as worked full time in the Pine Island nursing home.  

Margo and Russ retired in 2005, and spent time both at the Pine Island home and a cottage they had built in 1975 on 40 acres in NW Wisconsin near Russ' parents.  Summers at the lake, time at Pine Island and about 6 weeks in the south in state parks in their Jayco pop-up camper. 

  In 2013, Russ's mother died, and so Margo and he bought the home 40 acres with a big old house, barn and farm machine sheds and machinery.  They have lived since in Pine Island and in Wisconsin remaining MN residents. 

 Margo had cancer 2012-13, several back and neck surgeries in the next few years, a carotid artery stent, a stroke and a disease called systemic sclerosis that gradually took away her breathing ability without oxygen for the past two years. 

 Through all of this she was a highly involved Mother and Wife.  She put those ahead of everything else.