Margaret L. Zimmerman

Margaret L. Zimmerman, 84, of Washington, PA, died Saturday, May 24, 2008 at Washington Hospital surrounded by her loving family. She was born February 12, 1924 in Cokeburg, PA a daughter of G.J. Menego and Anna Payanoff-Menego. Margaret was a graduate of Bentleyville High School in 1942 and the Shadyside Hospital School of Nursing in 1944. She also attended the University of Pittsburgh studying advanced nursing courses through 1946. She married Kenneth E Mulac in 1946 and they had one daughter, Marlane L Mulac.Nason. She married Leslie E Zimmerman in 1965. Margaret had an extensive career as a Registered Nurse that included Shady Side Hospital and The Washington Hospital. She worked in the Emergency Department and also helped orient new nursing students when the new Out Patient Department was first formed at The Washington Hospital. Drafted into the Army as a nurse for one day. The day she was to be shipped out, the war was declared over. While owning and operating a gift shop in Bentleyville she also worked with her father at Menego’s Studio. Together they took thousands of photos of graduating students across the area. They also photographed innumerable communicants, weddings, and portraits. Every single photograph that was colored was hand painted by Margaret. Her efforts were awarded with many achievement awards, first place prizes, gold cups and blue ribbons, especially top honors from the Triangle Photographers Association for her oil painting of Frank Docktor and first place winner of the oil painting division of the Professional Photographers Association Annual Contest for a portrait of Charles Tracy. She was a Sunday School teacher at the Bentleyville Methodist Church for a number of years. After her father passed away and the studio closed in 1965 she joined her new husband, Leslie E Zimmerman in the artificial floral business. They distributed Margaret’s floral designs to department stores in Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Making life long friends with their employees. A complete change of business occurred around 1975 when they opened the Zimmerman Art Gallery, a well-known gallery promoting new artists as well as the famous. She was a member of the Bentleyville Board of Trade, Mensa, Washington Art Association, and The Church of the Covenant. She received several Bentleyville Board of Trade awards along with the Bentleyville Municipal Building Concept Award. She was a life-long member of the National Forensic League and received numerous awards in speaking and debates. Throughout her life she was a talented oil painter, cross stitcher and jewelry designer. Survived by husband, Les Zimmerman, daughter, Marlane Nason of Wake Forest, NC; two grand daughters, Rebecca Nason-Finkelman and her husband Michael of Frederick, MD and Jill Nason-Luginsland and her husband Brian of Germantown, MD; a sister, Eleanor Hoop of Plano, TX; a brother-in-law Gaylord Greenlee and a sister-in-law Rosalie Menego Solosky and numerous nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her parents, Gelindo and Anna Menego, two sisters, Beatrice Greenlee and Helen Menego, and one brother James Menego. Friends of Margaret L. Zimmerman, 84, of Washington, PA, who died Saturday, May 24, 2008, will be received on Tuesday, from 7 to 9 PM and Wednesday, from 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 PM in the William G. Neal Funeral Homes, Ltd., 925 Allison Avenue, Washington. Funeral services will be private and held at the convenience of the family with burial in Scenery Hill Cemetery.