Margaret Ellis Carlson

Margaret Ellis Carlson, 87, of Quincy, Illinois, passed peacefully on Monday, April 28, 2026, at Blessing Hospital surrounded by her family.

Born May 14, 1938, in Quincy to Walter and Edna (Pflieger) Ellis, Margaret grew up on a small farm north of town and attended Quincy public schools. She graduated from Quincy Senior High in 1956 and earned her bachelor’s degree in education from Quincy College in 1960.

On June 18, 1960, she married Donald Carlson at First Presbyterian Church of Quincy. Together they raised four children — James, Susan, Patricia, and Thomas — in a quiet brick home on Vermont Street that filled, summer after summer, with friends, neighbors, casseroles, and the steady warmth of her hospitality.

Margaret taught third grade at Adams Elementary for thirty-eight years before retiring in 1998. To generations of Quincy children she was Mrs. Carlson, the teacher who kept a tin of butterscotch candies on the corner of her desk and who could remember, decades later, every student’s middle name.

A life of service to the community

Outside the classroom Margaret served as a Sunday school teacher at First Presbyterian for over forty years, as a longtime volunteer with the Quincy Public Library’s reading buddy program, and as a member of the Adams County Historical Society. She and Donald enjoyed Sunday drives along the Mississippi, picnics at Quinsippi Island, and reading on the front porch into the long summer evenings.

Survived by

Margaret is survived by her husband of 65 years, Donald Carlson; four children, James (Karen) Carlson of Quincy, Susan Carlson of Chicago, Patricia (Mark) Sullivan of St. Louis, and Thomas (Linda) Carlson of Decatur; eleven grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her parents and her sister Ruth Ellis Mueller.

Services

Visitation will be held Thursday, May 1, 2026, from 4:00 to 7:00 p.m. at Bennett Funeral Home, 418 Maine Street, Quincy. A funeral service will follow on Friday, May 2, 2026, at 10:00 a.m. at First Presbyterian Church of Quincy. Burial will follow at Greenmount Cemetery.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that memorial contributions be made to the Quincy Public Library reading buddy program or to First Presbyterian Church of Quincy.

The Carlson family is in the care of Bennett Funeral Home.