cbleck@lsj.com
February 11, 2011
From Ingham County Community News
DELHI TWP. - Author, historian, docent, schoolteacher, church elder.
Margaret Brown Doolittle has worn many hats throughout the years, but maybe none was more special than the one she wore on Feb. 9 as she was honored by the Mason Area Chamber of Commerce as its 2011 Citizen of the Year at the Eldorado Golf Course Banquet Center.
The ailing Doolittle, who kept her speech brief, stressed that Mason provided her a place to raise a family and teach kids.
"Mason has given me everything," Doolittle said.
Members of her family were present to share her honor, including her son, Pete, who came from North Riverside, Ill.
"She talked about it every day, ever since it was announced," Pete said of her mother's award.
This wasn't the first time the Mason Area Chamber of Commerce honored Doolittle. In 2004 Doolittle, a former kindergarten teacher at North Aurelius Elementary School in Aurelius Township, was given the Exellence in Education Award.
She continued to teacher, with local students taking piano lessons from her.
Doolittle has shared her calligraphy skills through Mason Community Education, and her love of local history to children by leading field trips to the Pink School.
Doolittle serves as a ruling elder and deacon at Mason First Presbyterian Church and was one of the first women members of the Kiwanis Club of Mason, for whom she wrote, edited and distributed its weekly newsletter for many years.
Doolittle became an author after penning a series of volumes, "Down by the Sycamore," which featured columns written by her father, the late Nelson D. Brown, former editor of the Ingham County News.
The volumes totaled more than 1,000 pages and raised more than $7,500 for the Mason Area Historical Society.
Mayor Leon Clark, addressing the awards dinner crowd, called Doolittle a "conduit from the present to the past."
"Margaret Brown Doolittle is truly deserving of the honor of Citizen of the Year," Clark said.
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