Individual Details

Death

Margaret Sarah Clara Sagebiel Harber (Granny Gretchen) Margaret Sarah Clara Sagebiel Harber died just before her 95th birthday on April 24, 2013 surrounded by her loving family. A Celebration of Life family gathering will be held for her on Sunday July 28. She came into this life on May 9, 1918 at home in her beloved family homestead in the rural community of Eckert.Tx. She was baptized and confirmed as a Lutheran. She was raised to take her place amongst her siblings on the farm working in the fields and the house. The family then moved to Temple where they ran a boarding house and Margaret attended public schools, graduating from Temple High School. After attending business school in Temple she moved to Waco to start her career as a secretary. She met and married Gibson Harber, the father of her children, Kelly, Kathy and Cora. When they separated she moved to Austin where she was a secretary, office manager and apartment manager for several businesses in town. Margaret saw many changes in her lifetime such as no electricity in the house, riding to town on Saturday in the wagon to get supplies, watching a man land on the moon and playing video games on the computer with her grandsons. One of the original recyclers, she loved collecting Antiques and she loved collecting "stuff". She enjoyed being outdoors and enjoyed gathering seeds and planting flowers. She was a great advocate of household vinegar for both medicinal purposes and as a household cleaner. She was a whiz at the New York Times Crossword puzzle. She was proud of her German family heritage who had settled in the Texas Hill Country. She was preceded in death by her parents William "Willie" Hermann Sagebiel and Clara Louise Dechert Sagebiel. Willie was the son of Karl and Sophie Sagebiel and Clara Louise was the daughter of Heinrich and Maria Louisa Kneese Dechert.. The last surviving child of Willie and Clara, Margaret was preceded in death by her brothers Charley, Clem, Alvin, Theo and her sisters Laura Oakes, Emily West, Ruth Lang and Clara Fish. Sadly she was also preceded in death by her daughter Margaret Kathryn Furr Turner. Survivors are one son, Kelly Harber and wife Patsy, and one daughter Cora Caffey and Ronnie Bittle. There are ten grandchildren, Douglas, Troy, Jennifer, Kathy Ann, Ernie, Herbie, Demetra, Tracy, Tommy and Stacy and seventeen great grandchildren. She will be mourned by multiple family members and friends of her children who loved Granny Gretchen and always considered her to be their own.
Published in Austin American-Statesman on July 28, 2013