Marguerite E. O’Connell, 64, an energetic office manager and mom who baked pies at home and handed out communion wafers in church, died of lung cancer Wednesday, Jan. 3, in her Naperville home. Mrs. O’Connell was an office manager for about 20 years at Oliver-Hoffmann Corp., a land development firm in Naperville. But her family was the center of her life, her husband, Jim, said. She raised three children, teaching their religion classes, leading her daughter’s Brownie troop and heading parent-teacher organizations at their schools. “The birth of her grandchildren was the greatest joy of her life,” her son John said. A native of Oak Park and a graduate of the University of Illinois at Champaign, Mrs. O’Connell was a member of the Kappa Delta sorority and the homecoming court in college. Her husband said when he met her in 1962, he was captivated by her big blue eyes, her enthusiasm and her Irish pride. “She was very vivacious and I thought she was awfully good-looking,” he said. “She was full of fun and we just had a good time together no matter what we were doing, even if we were doing nothing.” They were married six months later. She quit her job at a Chicago law office to raise her children, then went to work at Oliver-Hoffmann full time when her youngest son was in middle school. Though she didn’t like sweets, she loved to cook and bake. A master of organization, she enjoyed buying clothes and gifts for herself and others, usually finishing her Christmas shopping by October. She was a Eucharistic minister at St. Thomas the Apostle Church in Naperville and had volunteered in the rectory office on weekends. When her friends were recovering from illnesses and injuries, she brought them home-cooked meals. She liked taking cruises with her husband because “she didn’t do any cooking, didn’t have any housework and she just couldn’t help but relax,” he said. Other survivors include her daughter, Kathleen Bergstrom; a son James; two sisters, Mary Ann Faust and Dorothy Bryant; and seven grandchildren. Private services were held.
