Margaret E. Sangster

Margaret Sangster (1894 - October 23, 1981 She grew up in Brooklyn, New York, living there until she was 20 years old. Her mother was an invalid, which limited Sangster's activity as a child. When she ventured beyond the front stoop of their home, her mother tapped sharply on her upstairs window with a thimble, beckoning her back to the stoop. "On occasion," she recalled in 1934, "I was permitted to sit on a hassock while tea was served, but I wasn't permitted to talk. I really was a model child. It was very uninteresting." Her father was a newspaperman in New York, and her grandmother was Margaret Elizabeth Sangster, a writer and editor. in Belgium, France, and Germany. Her travel in Germany took her to "the farthest outpost visited by any American woman up to that time." After several years there, she became editor of Photoplay magazine, and after that she edited The Smart Set magazine. Other radio programs for which she wrote included Ellen Randolph, Arnold Grimm's Daughter, Dick and Jeannie, House on Q Street, Joyce Jordan, M.D., My True Story, The Story of Ellen Randolph, Whispering Streets, TV Radio Mirror said, in a 1937 article about Sangster, "Actors and audience have always sensed the wit and wisdom, the love of people and of life that flow into each script."

Sangster also wrote the TV version of My True Story.

Sangster wrote articles, poems, and short stories for magazines and newspaper. Some of those items were printed with her own byline, and some used pen names. She sometimes wrote for four soap operas concurrently, She was constantly looking for ideas for plots. She also was married to Gerrit Van Deth, an accountant. Her funeral was at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Kinderhook, New York.

Papers and recognition Sangster's papers are housed in the Margaret E. Sangster Jr. Collection at Brooklyn College. Material there contains a limited amount of information about her personal life. Most of the collection consists of scripts that she wrote for soap operas. Other contents include her poems, short stories, and material related to proposed programs. In 1958, the American Cancer Society honored the program for educating the public about cancer.