Column: Remembering Margie Logman, an activist who ‘left a footprint in Aurora’

To some, she was a thorn in the side, a dog with a bone who was relentless with her concerns but also her criticism. To others, she was one of Fox Valley’s most passionate voices for the underdog, who cared deeply for Aurora but felt ostracized, even harassed, because she was never afraid to speak truth to power.

Either way, Margie Logman, who died Feb. 22 at age 76 from pneumonia at Mercy Ascension medical center in Aurora, made her presence known.

And even her harshest critics would have a hard time denying the heart of this woman who, after a compelling medical comeback in 2015 but still in a wheelchair from back issues, threw herself into community activism with such gusto it was hard to keep track of all that she championed.

Margie was interested in religion and education, in music and history. She got involved in crime prevention and social justice. She was a fierce advocate for youth, and most especially the elderly and disabled.

In fact, for a number of years Margie seemed to be everywhere – at City Council and Aurora Township meetings, at forums, on committees and advisory boards, attending nonprofit fundraisers and later, aligning with grassroots movements focused on social justice.

Margie, a former teacher who found her voice along with her health, even raised a ruckus in 2019 after being denied entrance to the city’s first-ever youth summit, declaring that all she wanted to do was sit quietly in the back, “listen and try to understand” what kids today are thinking.

Because she “always wanted to keep learning,” Margie was indeed all over the place, sometimes switching allegiances, which caused backlashes as she became a serial agitator to public officials.

In a June 2021 column I wrote, she declared she was bowing out of city events, blaming “the elite of Aurora” for “expressing unpopular views or calling government into account.”

Among her concerns: gentrification in downtown Aurora was hurting seniors and the disabled. And to illustrate her point, at a City Council meeting, she pulled out a cheap plastic table covering as a way of admonishing the mayor for his desire to have more white tablecloth restaurants in downtown Aurora.

But Aurora Township Supervisor Bill Catching, who heard his share of dissent from Margie, mostly over senior transportation issues, put her on his first senior advisory commission because she was a “fierce advocate” who studied the details and knew how to respectfully disagree.

“I admired her spunk,” Catching said, noting her criticisms were never personal. “We need more people like her to pay attention and get involved in local government.”

Unfortunately, the more Margie “made waves,” as she put it, the more she was subjected to hurtful attacks.

“Margie often felt unheard and misunderstood by many in her life,” said Shannon Cameron, who met her at an Aurora Mutual Aid meeting about 18 months ago and “watched her tirelessly champion the most vulnerable in our community,” even to the end.

“More than anything she wanted what was best for the people of Aurora and beyond,” said Cameron, who spent considerable time helping Margie with rides, meals and emotional support.

“She sought to spread love and tenderness in a world that often met her with indifference or hostility,” continued Cameron, a social worker at Mercy. “She put herself in vulnerable positions time and again and she paid the price.”

Aurora activist and business owner JL Harris, who founded the social justice group On The Move, also became a close friend to Margie. He described her as “a gold mine of information” and acknowledged that he “learned so much from her.”

But Harris echoed Cameron’s concerns that hurtful comments and phone calls – some he described as “threatening” – left her anxious and afraid.

In an essay Margie sent to me about her life, she described how the pushback she received “really got to me. And I saw myself heading back to old ways that put me into illness.”

Still, while Margie’s omnipresence in the city faded, she was not about to stay in her townhouse and let the world go by. In addition to grassroots activism, she got involved in Lauren Underwood’s Congressional campaign and became a member of state Sen. Karina Villa’s Senior Advisory Committee, which “gave her new wind, new goals,” said the state senator from West Chicago.

“Margie was instrumental in passing legislation that brought about better treatment for those in nursing homes,” Villa told me. “She was a go-getter” who not only supplied “plenty of encouraging words” but also had “such wisdom to share.”

And Margie “would not take no for an answer,” said Villa, who plans to introduce a Senate resolution in Springfield honoring the Aurora woman’s life and her efforts that benefitted the people of Illinois.

“She wanted to shine the light on issues that needed to be exposed.”

It was a lesson learned early in life.

Margie was proud of her childhood in Batavia, where she had been a former treasurer of its historical society. And she greatly admired her father Bert Johnson, a community activist and prominent druggist who – I recently learned – was the navigator on the boat that saved John F. Kennedy after the Japanese sank PT-109 during World War II.

“She was always proud of that connection,” said Batavia Mayor Jeff Schielke, her friend since childhood, noting that for as long as he can remember Margie was “always on the lookout” for those who might not have the resources she enjoyed.

If an elderly woman, for example, was having trouble with garbage, she called the city. If someone was a potential scam victim, she was in touch with police.

“When it came to those in need,” the longtime mayor said, “she always had her eyes open and her heart full.”

A graduate of Madonna High School in Aurora, Margie met her husband of 40 years when they were attending college at Creighton University. She and Ed Logman moved to his hometown of Aurora, where he became a prominent dentist who, she told me proudly, “had a heart for the common man and the underprivileged.”

Together they raised three children in “utopia” on the city’s West Side, Margie said. But her life took a turn after her spouse died in 2011.

According to Margie, she developed Parkinson’s as a “side effect” to many drugs she was prescribed for complications following gall bladder surgery and bouts with depression and occasional mania. These symptoms put her in a nursing home, where she continued to struggle with physical and mental health issues that she believed were made worse by doctors overprescribing medications.

But on her own and relying on a deep faith, Margie said she gradually weaned herself from the drugs, changed her diet and attitude and regained her health. Grateful and happy – I will always remember her with a huge smile on her face – Margie became more visible and vocal in the city.

In the essay she sent to me about the ups and downs of her life, the words at the end always stood out.

“I hope,” she wrote, “I have left a footprint in Aurora.”

Clearly she has. Longtime Ald. Mike Saville and former Ald. Sherman Jenkins both knew how genuine her love was for the city, and were inspired by her vitality and desire to make life better for those in her community.

“She was,” said Saville, “a true Auroran.”

Margie’s death “is a loss for her family and for the city,” added Jenkins, who also became her friend.

“She was so much a presence … we need to find ways to applaud her and remember her.”

Visitation for Margie Logman will be from 1 to 3 p.m. March 8 at Moss Family Funeral Home, 209 S. Batavia Ave., Batavia. A memorial service will immediately follow, with interment private.

dcrosby@tribpub.com

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