While parents enjoy cups of java at the Yellow Wood coffee house in Alamo, their little children gather around a young woman in her 20s who entertains them with Christmas carols in a loud operatic voice in between making lattes and cappuccinos. The parents, too, are enchanted and wonder: Who is this talented barista?
Little do people know that Margaret Ogden mingled with children of diplomats and studied acting at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute in New York City. Also, when working as a caterer at the home of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, she delivered a message to him brought by a Green Beret that Saddam Hussein finally had been caught. She recalls covering her eyes when Rumsfeld accepted the message in his underwear.
But Ogden grew tired of living like a gypsy.
Though she enjoyed traveling, big cities and hobnobbing with power brokers, she recently came to Danville looking to live a normal life and spend time with her grandmother, Margaret May–the wife of former Danville Mayor John May.
“It’s a beautiful place,” Ogden about the town. “I’m looking for a bit of a normal life. It’s a real family world here.”
She also currently teaches children at SCORE Educational Center in Alamo, in addition to working at Yellow Wood, and plans to go back to opera singing shortly. During Christmas, she spent time with her mother, aunts and cousins eating steamed chocolate pudding and turkey.
Margaret was born in 1977 in D.C. to Christopher and Diana Deedy Ogden. Her father was a journalist for Time and Fortune magazines and has written several books, including a biography of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Her mother Diana is a painter, and her older brother Michael is also a writer.
In 1981, the family moved to Chicago when Christopher Ogden was promoted to Time bureau chief in Illinois. Then in 1985, they moved to Great Britain when he became bureau chief in London during the time Ronald Reagan, Mikhail Gorbachev and Margaret Thatcher were in power.
“It was a great experience to grow up in,” Ogden said. “It was so international. There were a lot of interesting people coming into my life.”
During Christmas of 1986, her family went on vacation to South Africa. Ogden said the country was wonderful.
“The world must be a beautiful place,” she said she thought after visiting South Africa.
But after their trip, her family faced strains in their relationships, which Ogden said were difficult. They were stunned when her mother left her father for another woman. Shortly after, her father found another woman, too.
“It wasn’t a good time,” Ogden said. She feels a lack of honesty and the tensions of their surrounding environment contributed to pulling her family apart and that her own honesty and truthfulness helped her get through the problems.
Moving forward, Ogden went back to Washington and studied at Northwestern University, majoring in opera and theater. She performed at the John F. Kennedy Center and also in Arkansas.
Later, she traveled again–to New York City. She received a full scholarship to the Lee Strasberg Institute of Theatre and Film from a recommendation. But though she was doing well in Manhattan, she felt burned out.
So, she decided to move to Danville to slow down and meet her unknown family members.
At the present moment, she doesn’t miss New York City or D.C. And she said she’s enjoying being with her grandmother, 87, and her cousins.
She said she may get the itch to move again. But meanwhile she’s enjoying mixing the coffee drinks, and belting out a song to the young admirers who gather around her at Yellow Wood.
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