Word on the Street Issue 40, February 2024
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MARGARET MONTROSE STIGERS
July 2, 1944 ~ December 20, 2023
A diva gained her wings this winter and Interfaith Sanctuary lost a wonderful advocate, friend and family member. Margaret Stigers, mom to Curtis Stigers and Mom in-law to Jodi Peterson-Stigers spent the last 17 years singing her heart out for our cause and getting the high bidders at the Xtreme Holiday Xtravaganza with her famous fudge tower. We have no doubt that heaven just became a much more entertaining place with our dear Margaret entering those pearly and no doubt bedazzled gates.
TRIBUTE
Margaret Montrose Stigers passed away peacefully in Boise on December 20, 2023.
Born Margaret Helen Montrose in Pocatello, Idaho, on July 2, 1944, to Leola Rose Eckersley Montrose and Edwin Charles Montrose, she grew up on Colorado Street in South Boise, attended Garfield Elementary and East Junior High, and graduated from Boise High in 1962, where she was a cheerleader who loved singing, cruising main street in a hot rod, and dancing to rock n’ roll, especially Little Richard. The quote accompanying Margaret’s senior photo in the Boise High yearbook read: “She’d rather spend time with a man than an angel any day.”
Margaret’s parents moved to Southern California at the beginning of her senior year of high school but she chose to stay in Boise to graduate from Boise High. She lived with her aunt and uncle, Mildred and Eardley Glass, and their 3 children, Brad, Cheryl and Diane. After graduating, Margaret moved to Southern California to join her parents and younger sister, where she attended Pasadena City College. Her oldest son Curtis was born in 1965. As an unmarried mother-to-be with a sense of humor, she named Clint Eastwood as her “emergency contact” on the hospital maternity ward intake form.
In 1967, Margaret married Steve Stigers and lived for a year in Pacific Beach, Washington where her husband was stationed with the Navy. They moved back to California and eventually spent a year living in the town of Santa Maria, where Margaret’s younger son Jake was born, in 1972. A year later the couple divorced and in 1974 Margaret moved home to Idaho to raise her sons in Boise.
Margaret held many different jobs (from receptionist to bookkeeper to prison guard!) sometimes working two jobs at a time as a single mom raising two boys on her own. She was a longtime Albertsons employee and was proud to say she started her work career while still in high school, as a bagger and checker at the original Albertsons Market on State Street.
Margaret was a member of the LDS church and was a choir director and a beloved and unconventional Sunday school teacher (many remember her as “Sister Friend”). She touched the lives of so many young people and never lost her youthful sense of fun.
Margaret was born to be a grandma, and she adored and doted on her loving granddaughters Ruby and Stella.
Amidst the melodrama of the local musical theater scene, Margaret found a new passion in the second act of her life. With a big voice and a love of the stage she secured leading roles in many shows including My Fair Lady, Pippin, South Pacific, Little Shop Of Horrors, Annie (Miss Hannigan!), Singin’ In The Rain, Nunsense (1, 2 and 3!), Oklahoma, and Sweeney Todd, for which she won Boise Little Theater’s Best Actress “Beaulah” award, for her portrayal of Mrs. Lovett. She was also a proud member, for over 35 years, of the revered (and rockin’) singing group The Divas of Boise (founded by her dear friend Rocci Johnson).
Margaret had a fondness for making fudge and was something of a legend in the local medical community as she often arrived at her doctor appointments with a tin or two of fudge for the office staff.
Margaret is survived by her sons Curtis Stigers (Jodi) and Jake Stigers (Suzanne), her beloved granddaughters Ruby and Stella, her step-grandsons Sam and Max Peterson, her sisters Patricia Elam (Gene) of Moraga, CA; Pamela Montrose of Washington, DC; Rita Libbrecht (Glenn) of Reno, NV; and half-brother Ed Montrose, Jr. (Lorraine) of Sacramento, CA, and numerous nieces, nephews and cousins.
Margaret Stigers was buried on December 26, 2023 at Dry Creek Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to Interfaith Sanctuary Homeless Shelter. A celebration of life will be held at a later date.