By Frances Duckett
Margaret died on April 28, 2022 in New York. Margaret was born in New York, but came to Roosevelt in her teens. She attended Allentown High School. Then, as an aspiring actress, she went back to New York. Her son, Benjamin List, told me that she dated Robert Downey and in the '60's appeared with him in a film called Chafed Elbows, which is available on You Tube! Margaret told me she had worked at the Shakespeare Theatre at Stratford, CT.
When I first met Margaret, in 1970, she was separated from her first husband, Daniel List, and living on Rochdale Avenue. Her children introduced us. Soon I was involved, acting and doing scenic design for the productions she directed (entirely pro bono) and in which my children were involved. Soon she married Edward Schlinski, a handyman, builder, and papier mache artist. They had a kind of salon, with endless coffee, artists like Herb Steinberg, and collectors like Allen Newrath hung out at their kitchen table under Ed's frieze of the Seven Deadly Sins. They gave great Labor Day parties. Margaret gave birth to twins, Abraham and Evelyn.
At one point Margaret was employed as a lunch aide at Roosevelt Public School. She organized ball games during lunch hour and kept the gym open some nights for floor hockey and basketball. Edward Schlinski died in 1983. Margaret acted as a faithful caregiver to her stepmother, Evelyn Meigs, through three strokes. Evelyn lived with them and was good company, until the last.
In 1991, when I returned to Roosevelt, it was in part because Margaret had offered me a job at the summer camp she was running at the Pine Valley Swim Club. She taught drama; I taught art. Margaret was addicted to heroin, but this did not apparently prevent her from running the camp creditably. Soon after, though, she left town to go to her son Benjamin in Florida. He was recuperating from surgery and needed after-school care for his son Daniel. In Florida, Margaret quit heroin.
In 2005 Margaret came back to Roosevelt, staying with me and putting on Shakespeare's “A Midsummer Night's Dream" in my backyard, an event covered by two newspapers. Margaret had a gift for mobilizing volunteers. She knew who and how to ask. June Counterman helped with costumes, Ani Rosskam, a professional artist, put up a lovely acoustic set, Gart Edelstein loaned a sculpture of a running nymph, and the little girls across the street helped us count the house. It was a triumphant comeback, and was followed by two other productions.
During her last years, Margaret lived at the Solar Village, where she volunteered with Meals on Wheels and contracted Parkinson's Disease. Daughters Tessie and Evelyn and son Ben cared for her. She is survived by brothers Frederick and George Meigs, sons Ben List and Abraham Schlinski. daughter Evelyn Schlinski , grandsons Daniel, Arthur and Ignatz List, and neice and nephew Nora and Avery Meigs.
A Partial List of the Productions Directed by Margaret Schlinski in Roosevelt
Children's Theater Workshop
Roosevelt Players
Monsters and Marigolds
Chamber Music
Death KnocksThe Grass Harp
Madeline (this went on the road!)
Many Moons
Our Town Under Milkwood (a reading)
Fantasia
A Midsummer Night's Dream
No Exit
Scuba Duba