Margaret (Gatch) Braunagel

Margaret Braunagel was born at Round’O, South Carolina in 1911 and went to her rest on January 1, 2017 at Devils Lake, ND. She was 105 years old.  She was interred at the Gatch Family Cemetery in Round’O on January 6, 1917.  A Memorial Service is planned for April 8, 2017 in South Carolina. Margaret was the daughter of Lemuel and Rebecca Gatch. Margaret became deaf at the age of 3 from chronic ear infection. She married Nicholas A. Braunagel in 1931, a professor at the South Carolina School for the Deaf and Blind in Spartanburg.  Nicholas had become deaf at the age of 5, also from ear infection.  In 1942, the family moved to North Dakota which was the home state of her husband, Nicholas, who taught at the North Dakota State School for the Deaf. Margaret spent her adult life raising her two sons. Lemuel A. “Tony” Braunagel who passed away on December 9, 2013 and Patrick N. Braunagel who resides in Redding, California.  Both of her sons graduated from Jamestown University in North Dakota.  The boys always described her as the perfect mother, a person who was caring, kind and loving. Many people told the boys that Margaret was a beautiful lady, they both agreed and added that she was also a beautiful person. Margaret was preceded in death by her parents; husband Nicholas; son Tony; grandson Drew Braunagel; brother Raymond Gatch and sisters Mary, Georgie and Lucy.