Margaret went home to be with her Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, on March 15, 2013, surrounded by loving family and care givers at Valle Verde Retirement Community in Santa Barbara, California.
Margaret was born in Lynchburg, Virginia, to Preston Henry Bailey and Elizabeth Flournoy Leftwich Bailey on May 12, 1918. Her father, an attorney and member of the Virginia State Legislature, died in the great influenza epidemic of 1918 when Margaret was only 5 months old. Her mother was an elementary school teacher.
Margaret graduated from E.C. Glass High School in 1934 where she participated in yearbook, drama, and the debate team. She was also active in her church youth group. In 1938, she was just 19 when she graduated from Wheaton College, Illinois, with a major in Christian education and a minor in psychology. While in college she placed third in the nation for the League of Nations national exam. In 1940, she earned her master’s degree in Christian education and moved to Los Angeles, California, to teach at Westmont College.
In 1941, she married Rolf Christian Jacobsen, a widower with two year-old twin boys, John and Richard. The next year she gave birth to their daughter, Elizabeth (Betty Rae). Margaret and Rolf served the Lord together as they raised their family in Eagle Rock and Pasadena, California. During those years, Margaret was a correspondent for “Christian Life and Times,” professor of psychology and Christian education at Biola College, and authored The Child in The Christian Home which was later translated into Portuguese and Indonesian and released as a paperback retitled What Happens When Children Grow. At Lake Avenue Congregational Church in Pasadena she taught Sunday School and served on the missions committee, and in 1958 she became Superintendent of Missions, a position she held for 28 years.
Rolf and Margaret were business partners involved with the Pasadena Central Improvement Association, which first envisioned Old Town Pasadena. Rolf died in 1974 after a long illness, and Margaret ably assumed management of his business enterprises. Margaret was a founding member of the Association of Church Missions Committees (ACMC) and led effectively in the male dominated world of her day.
In 1986, Margaret married Roger Voskuyl, and they enjoyed nineteen years of world travel and retirement together at Valle Verde Retirement Community in Santa Barbara, California. Roger died in 2005.
Margaret was warm and caring, a keen listener and a wise counselor, a gracious hostess and a loving mentor to family and friends. She will be greatly missed.
In 2010, Margaret was given the great honor of being the first recipient of the Susan Coleman Crowell Award, given by the Crowell Trust “With Gratitude to God for your lifetime of selfless service and your faithful demonstration of the Godly vision, values, and initiatives that characterize the life of Susan Coleman Crowell.”
Margaret is survived by sons: John (Carol) Jacobsen, Richard (Elaine) Jacobsen and daughter: Elizabeth (Lynn) Howie. Grandchildren Mary (Harry) VanderSchoot, Mark (Meredith) Jacobsen, Richard (Kate Oxx) Jacobsen, David (Christine) Jacobsen, Robert and Daniel (Jennifer) Howie, and 17 great grandchildren.
There will be a memorial service at a later date. Donations may be made in her memory to the Margaret Jacobsen Voskuyl Legacy Fund for world missions at Lake Avenue Church, Pasadena, CA.
Arrangements entrusted to Welch-Ryce-Haider Funeral Chapels.
