Margaret DeLancey (Howe) Yatsevitch (1907 - 1996)

Born 16 Apr 1907 in Concord, Middlesex, Massachusetts, USA

Ancestors

Wife of Gratian Michael Yatsevitch — married 29 Apr 1939 (to 1972) in St Michaels Betchworth, county of Surrey, England.

Died 9 Apr 1996 at age 88 in Washington City, District Of Columbia, District of Columbia, USA

Biography

Obituary: Margaret D. Howe, 88, teacher, linguist. Margaret DeLancey Howe of Washington, D.C., died of a heart attack on April 9, 1996, at the George Washington University Hospital, one week short of her eighty-ninth birthday. She was born on April 16, 1907, in Concord, Massachusetts, the daughter of William DeLancey Howe and Clara Horton (May) Howe of Cambridge, Mass. She descended from a long line of New Englanders dating from c. 1630 and including the author Louisa May Alcott (Margaret DeLancey Howe is a third cousin). Her grandfather was Brevet Major General Albion Parris Howe, who fought in the Mexican and Civil Wars and, following the Civil War, was Military Commandant of Fort Washington and a member of the court-martial which tried the assassin of President Lincoln. She attended the Windsor School in Boston and had her debut there in 1926. She graduated from Vassar College with the Class of 1930, then attended graduate studies at Radcliffe College and obtained an M.A. degree in Fine Arts from Harvard University in 1943.

In 1939 she was married, in England, to Col. Gratian M. Yatsevitch, Sr. of Cornish, New Hampshire, and then lived in Yugoslavia where he was a mining engineer and manager of a gold mine. In 1940 they returned to the United States because of the outbreak of WWII, and moved to Washington, D.C. where the family settled. After the war, she served the country as a diplomatic wife where her language and diplomatic skills were invaluable in the various countries in which she traveled with her husband. They traveled together throughout the Near and Middle East and were posted in Sofia, Bulgaria; Istanbul, Turkey; and for many years in Tehran, Iran, as well as Washington, D.C. Her marriage ended in divorce in 1972.

During her life in Washington, Mrs. Howe was also a teacher at several private schools - Miss Cook's, the Maret School, and the Kingsbury Center (formerly The Remedial Education Center). Her skills as a remedial reading teacher were well recognized. Mrs. Howe is survived by her former husband and three of her children, a daughter; Capt. Peter G. Yatsevitch, US Army Ret. of Springfield, VA; and a son; two grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren; as well as a sister, Elizabeth May (Howe) Perkins Pettet of Jacksonville, FL. A daughter, Katharine Howe Yatsevitch, died in 1970. Mrs. Howe was a member of the Sulgrave Club, Washington, D.C., and the Lansdowne Club, London, England. A private memorial reception will be held at her home. Her remains will be laid to rest in the family plot in Cambridge, Mass.

Sources

• Memorial: Find a Grave (has image)
  Find A Grave: Memorial #133240955 (accessed 12 May 2024)
  Memorial page for Margaret DeLancey “Peggy” Howe Yatsevitch (16 Apr 1907-9 Apr 1996), citing Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, USA (plot: Golden Rod Path; Lot 6547); Maintained by jaeren (contributor 47669688).