Margaret T. Lynch of Westhampton Beach died in Atlanta, Georgia, on October 28. She was 91.
A reluctant adventuress, Ms. Lynch followed her husband, Donald, to Africa, where together they raised their two children. There, in South Africa and Kenya, among the panthers living on their roof and the elephants in the roads, she learned to ballroom dance and became a prolific and skilled oil painter, survivors said. When the family later returned to the United States, they filled their Long Island home with her art, maps of Africa and gifts collected during her husband’s travels, including solid wood sculptures from African artists. Survivors said she was larger than life, and that her life was larger than most.
Eventually, Ms. Lynch and her husband settled in Westhampton Beach near their daughter Barbara and her family. As her granddaughters became adults, she advised them that gin martinis should be bone dry, all women should know the box step and that if you’re going to wear jewelry, wear something big.
Survivors recall her outstanding curried vegetable soup and that she was deeply and lovingly generous. She could train dogs as if she spoke their language, they said, and spicy food gave her the hiccups.
Ms. Lynch was a teacher for 18 years and did not hesitate to speak her mind when she felt that her students’ best interests were at stake. She loved garlic and her husband would say, “Peggy will put garlic in everything but ice cream.”
As a child she wore a leg brace as a result of a serious car accident. She healed, but kept the brace all her life.
Predeceased by her husband, she is survived by a son, Kevin and wife Lesley; a daughter, Barbara and husband Douglas; granddaughters Sharon and Meghan; and great-granddaughter Evelyn Scarlett.