WINONA -- Margaret Pearse Boddy, 94, died Wednesday (July 2, 2003) at the Walker Methodist Elder Residence in Minneapolis, where she had lived for the past two years. Arrangements are with the Cremation Society of Minnesota.
Miss Boddy was a professor of English literature at Winona State College from 1950 until her retirement in 1976. Before that, she taught English in small colleges in Nebraska, New Mexico, Boston, Denver, and Buffalo and Rochester, N.Y.
She also tutored students who had learning or second-language problems in English grammar and composition and provided an in-home shelter in Winona for battered women.
She received her bachelor's degree in 1931, her master's in 1932 and her doctorate in English in 1935, all from the University of Minnesota. She also studied at the British Museum and Bodlien libraries in 1935 and 1936 under a post-doctoral fellowship from the AAUW.
She was a frequent lobbyist at the Minnesota Legislature for feminist causes and in 1982 ran unsuccessfully on the DFL ticket for the Minnesota Senate from District 34, representing all of Houston and most of Winona counties.
ADVERTISEMENT
In 1980, she was honored by the Ramsey County Women's Political caucus as a "Founding Feminist" for being a founder of the Winona County Women's Political Caucus and a board member for 25 years of the Minnesota Civil Liberties Union.
She was an avid gardener and practiced composting and recycling before the practices became popular.
After her retirement from Winona State, she lived in the Linden Hills area of Minneapolis until entering the nursing home.
Survivors include a sister, Nora Kirkpatrick of Honolulu.
