Margaret Brown Doolittle: the top citizen in Mason

By CHRISTIE BLECK
cbleck@lsj.com
January 30, 2011
From Ingham County Community News

MASON - Author, historian, volunteer, schoolteacher, music teacher. Margaret Brown Doolittle has had all these titles.

Now you can add Citizen of the Year to that list.

At the annual Mason Area Chamber of Commerce awards dinner set for Feb. 9 at the Eldorado Golf Course Banquet Center at 3750 W. Howell Road, Doolittle, 67, will be honored as Mason's top citizen, a honor given to individuals who have made significant contributions to the community.

"Well, it was a complete surprise," Doolittle said.

Doug Klein, chamber executive director, said, "Some think we're honoring Margaret with this award. Instead, Margaret has honored us by accepting it. All her efforts through the years that have touched the lives of so many in our community makes her more than worthy of this recognition."

Doolittle was a teacher at North Aurelius Elementary School from 1979 through 2004. A few years later, she kept busy by penning a series of books, "Down By the Sycamore," which are compilations of newspaper columns written by her late father, Nelson D. Brown, editor of the Ingham County News.

The enormously successful series, which spotlighted what Doolittle called her father's "Mark Twain"-like prose, was a fundraiser for the Mason Area Historical Society (MAHS).

Doolittle said she originally put together some of her father's material for her children, but then showed it to a Society member, Dorothy Ferris, who told her, "There's so much Mason history in it."

There was so much material, in fact, that Doolittle said she couldn't fit it all into one book.

"It was going to be a much bigger effort," she said, "and I use the word effort because it never really was a chore."

The series of volumes also raised about $7,600 for the Society.

Even though she retired as a teacher in 2004, Doolittle did not retire from public life. She is a member of the Mason Presbyterian Church and the Kiwanis Club of Mason, and used to give tours of the historic Pink School for the MAHS.

"It teaches kids how important history is to us," Doolittle said.

Doolittle also invigorates herself by continuing to teach piano to eight students.

"When they're here," she said, "it transports me."

Being with kids changes her behavior, Doolittle said, but in a good way.

"Once a teacher, always a teacher, I guess," she said.

Doolittle is undergoing medical problems now, which are making it more difficult to get around. However, her many friends helping her stay mobile.

"My friends have really pitched in to help me get around the days and nights," Doolittle said.

It's that outpouring of support that Doolittle really appreciates, and why she enjoys living in Mason.

"It shows how big-hearted Mason is, I think," she said.