Margaret Bellon

Margaret Helen (Applegate) Bellon, age 95, peacefully went to her heavenly home on January 16, 2021.

Cremation has taken place under the direction of Terpening & Son Mortuary.

A memorial service will be held at a later date in her beloved Sacramento Mountains.

Margaret was born January 5, 1926, to Umbra Lindell (Blair) Applegate and John Cathcart Applegate, in Lohrville near their farm in Cedar Township, Calhoun County, Iowa. Her family farmed in Iowa and she graduated from high school in Knoxville.

Margaret married Raymond Keith Fry in 1946, and from this union are two children, Penelope Ann and John Thomas. Raymond preceded her in death on 6/21/1954.

While working at a drugstore in Knoxville, she met and later married Lester Wayne Bellon on October 1, 1955, and shortly after moved to California. From this union is one child, Beverly Jane.

Margaret and Wayne moved from Torrance, Calif. to New Mexico in 1965, residing in Artesia and then transferred to Naperville, Ill. in 1966. She worked as a typist at Checkmaster in Naperville until Wayne’s reassignment to Topeka, Kansas in 1970. They made their home in Silver Lake (west of Topeka). Margaret worked in the cafeteria at Silver Lake High School, she served as the church secretary at the Silver Lake United Methodist Church, and sold Avon just as her mother did before her for several years.  After they became empty nesters, Wayne and Margaret bought a condo in Topeka, residing there until 1988 after Wayne retired from the railroad. It was then that their dream of living in the Sacramento Mountains of New Mexico became reality, living there until late 2020.

She and Wayne were members of Cloudcroft United Methodist Church. Margaret will be remembered for many talents that included gardening, cooking, sewing and Scrabble playing. She loved the peacefulness of the mountains and feeding the hummingbirds.

Those preceding Margaret in death are parents, John & Umbra Applegate, and brother, Allen Blair Applegate.

Survivors include her husband of 65 years, Wayne Bellon; children Penny (Dale) Taylor of Artesia, NM, Tom (Sheila) Fry of Sacramento, N.M, and Bev (Bill) Blevins of Bartlesville, Okla.; grandchildren Netta (John Ross) Null of Artesia, Colby (Shelli) Taylor of Artesia, Darrah Fry of Alamogordo, N.M., Tracy (Josh) Carter of Tampa, Fla., Megan (Andrew) Calhoun of Bartlesville, Okla., Michael (Cassidy) Blevins of Sand Springs, Oklahoma; 8 great-grandchildren and 3 great-great-grandchildren; and a host of nieces, nephews and extended family members that she dearly loved.

The family would like to express their huge appreciation to Encompass Health Hospice caregivers for their comfort and support during this time, especially Jana Mann.

Memorial contributions may be made to one or both of the following, Sacramento Camp and Conference Center, P.O. Box 8, Sacramento, NM 88347 or at www.sacramentocamp.org/donate, or to the Cloudcroft United Methodist Church, P.O. Box 229, Cloudcroft, NM 88137 or at www.cloudcroftumc.org.