Anna Margaret "Marge" Knipper

Obituary

Anna Margaret ‘Marge’ Knipper

January 14, 1931 – September 26, 2024

Anna Margaret ‘Marge’ Knipper passed away peacefully early on the morning of September 26, 2024 at Carmel Manor, Fort Thomas, KY after about a week in Hospice care, at age 93.

Daughter of the late Ralph Meyers and Elizabeth Schuette Meyers of Covington, KY, Marge attended Covington’s St. Augustine’s Elementary School and graduated from Notre Dame Academy in 1949. After graduation, she received training as an X-Ray Technician at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital, Covington, and worked in this capacity until she met and married her husband, the late Donald A. Knipper, originally of Newport, KY.

When the Navy recalled Don into service during the Korean War, the newlyweds moved to San Diego, CA for Don’s military service, then returned to make their home in Covington following Don’s discharge where Don began his career in insurance and Marge devoted herself to raising their family.

Marge’s growing family soon dictated a move to Park Hills, KY, where the children attended St. Agnes Elementary School and spent summers playing at the Bluegrass Swim Club while Marge had her hands full with her growing brood.

Don’s advancing career led the family to move to Dayton, OH in 1963 where he became a partner in an independent insurance agency. As the family matured and their profile in the Dayton community rose, Marge had more time for pursuits outside the home – volunteering with the Rosary-Altar Society of Dayton’s Holy Angels Parish; participating with Don at functions of Dayton’s Mercator Club, a local business group; and visiting and hosting, with Don, delegations from Dayton’s Sister Cities, La Vesinet, France and Outremont, Quebec, Canada. Later, Marge and Don also became active in the German-heritage Kolping Club of Cincinnati.

Four of Marge’s children graduated from the University of Dayton, near the family’s Oakwood home – where Marge was named an ‘honorary little sister’ in her son Tom’s Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity. As her children ‘left the nest’, Marge traveled extensively with Don around the U.S., Mexico and Canada: to Europe and the Holy Land (especially to Germany and such pilgrimage sites as Fatima and Medjugorje); and to the Caribbean, where her eldest daughter and her husband, then the U.S. Ambassador to Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean, were residing. In Europe, they often visited and traveled with European relatives – especially distant cousins Heribert and Paula Kunst of Bremen, Germany -- with whom Don’s genealogical research had reconnected them.

In retirement, Marge and Don followed other Dayton friends to eastern Tennessee, near Sevierville, where they made their home in retirement until Don’s death in 2002.

As a widow, Marge lived for 20 years at St. Charles Center in Covington, regularly visiting her children around the Midwest and in Washington, D.C. For 50 years, she gathered her huge family – eventually numbering 23 grandchildren (22 survive) and 26 great-grandchildren in addition to her seven children and their spouses – for a big annual Christmas celebration. When she was no longer able to live independently, she moved to Carmel Manor.

In addition to her parents and her husband, Don, Marge was preceded in death by her, twin sister Cecilia, who died in infancy; her brother, Harry Meyers and sister-in-law Anne Berg Meyers, long resident in Hamilton, OH; her sister-in-law Sr. Gertrude Ann Knipper, CDP and a granddaughter, Holly Smith, of New Paris, OH. She is survived by her children, Victoria Ann Hughes (G. Philip) of Millwood, VA; Donna Smith of Champaign, IL; Deborah Wait (Robert) of Woodbridge, VA; Thomas Knipper (Elizabeth) of Loveland, OH; Mary Margaret ‘Peg’ Hayes (Richard) of Painesville, OH; Barbara Stevens (Philip) of Brighton, MI; and Joan ‘Jo’ Gath (Neil) of Indianapolis, IN; 22 grandchildren and 26 great-grandchildren. 

Visitation will begin at 9:00 AM at St. Augustine’s Catholic Church,1839 Euclid Ave., Covington, KY on Friday, October 4, immediately followed by a Mass of Christian Burial at 11:00 AM. Interment will follow at Mother of God Cemetery, 3125 Madison Ave., Covington, KY. Donations in lieu of flowers may be sent to the St. Augustine Parish Restoration Fund.