Margaret Mary Hiller

Margaret M. Hiller, a long-time resident of Sun City Center, Florida, passed on June 12, 2026. For several months prior to her death, she was recovering at Sun Terrace Rehabilitation Center from various physical issues.

Margaret Mary Brown was born in Morecambe, Lancashire County, England on April 3, 1931. Her father was Walter Brown and her mother Elsie [Lawn] Brown. Margaret was the youngest of five sisters—Irene (Renee), Winfred (Winnie), Dorothy (Dot), and Audrey—and one brother (John), all of whom she outlived. From Winnie she learned her hairdressing skills, an occupation that supported her through life. She operated successful businesses in post-war England in the 1950s and in the United States in the 1960s–80s and she also taught her craft to many students in New York’s BOCES (Board of Cooperative Educational Services) program. She and her first husband, Bernard Dixon, emigrated to the United States in the late 1950s. They lived in the Albany, New York area, which was also the home of her last husband John (Jack) J. Hiller, who she married in 1983. They also had homes in Knox County, Maine, and in the Ruskin–Sun City Center area of Florida. Margaret was a very caring wife to Jack in his difficult last years. She survived him by 17 years, oscillating between Florida in the winter and Maine in the summer.

Margaret leaves behind five nieces and nephews of her English sisters and four children on Jack’s side of the family. There are also ten great-nephews and great-nieces from both Jack’s and her kin who thought fondly of this bright, spirited woman with her endearing British accent. Friends in all the places where she lived knew Margaret to be an avid reader, a lover of animals, a born leader, and a very liberal thinker. She was a person who especially loved the craft of hairdressing. Those who came her way, both in the shop and out of it, inevitably felt a bit more beautiful when they left. There just weren’t many people like her.

Margaret’s ashes eventually will be deposited in Winifred and Bill Brown’s burial plot at Seaside Cemetery in Tenants Harbor, Maine. There are no planned memorial nor grave services set as yet, but her family asks that you remember Margaret in your own fashion. If you wish to donate in her name, please consider Best Friends—Save Them All (bestfriends.org) or Wounded Veterans’ Relief Fund (wvrf.org). This was her expressed wish.