By Joshua Benton
Blade Staff Writer
Page 16
NAPOLEON — Margaret Sloan, a retired can inspector at the Campbell Soup plant here, died suddenly Friday after a cardiac arrest at her home.
Mrs. Sloan was born in Spangler, Pa., and attended Seton Hill College in Greensburg, Pa. She married Gail Sloan in 1940, and when Mr. Sloan’s employer transferred him to northwest Ohio, they settled in Napoleon in 1952.
There, she became a housewife, raising three sons. Her oldest, Donald, said his mother enjoyed following her boys’ sports careers, “from Little League to Pony League to high school and college.” The youngest, Gary, was a star quarterback at Napoleon High School who received a full scholarship to play at Ohio State University.
“She came to all the games,” Donald said. “We’re finding all these clippings of stories about us, things we didn’t even know existed.
“She’d always do anything for any of us, whatever we needed,” he said.
After her sons were grown, she took the Campbell Soup Co. position, serving as a quality control inspector.
Mrs. Sloan held the job for 24 years. She retired in 1987.
“She had to make sure there was not too much lead or tin or other metal in the cans,” her son said. “If the levels are too high, you can get lead poisoning.”
She also spent time traveling across the country with her husband, who died in 1988. They visited her sons at their new homes, mostly in the West, and once took a circle route around the country on a train.
She was a member of St. Augustine Catholic Church in Napoleon. Mr. Sloan said his mother’s death was “a shock to everybody.” She had spent her day Friday shopping and seeing friends and family, with no indication of any health problems.
Surviving are three sons, Donald, Gail Jr., and Gary Sloan; six grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.
Visitation will be today from 2 to 5 p.m. and 7 to 9 p.m. at Walker Mortuary, Napoleon. A rosary service will be at 8:30 tonight.
A funeral Mass will be at 10 a.m. tomorrow at St. Augustine Catholic Church. Burial will follow at Riverview Memory Gardens in rural Defiance County.
The family asks that tributes be made to the American Diabetes Association, the Henry County Humane Society, or a charity of the donor’s choice.