Margaret Hodges, 94; Award-Winning Author of Children’s Books

Margaret Hodges, 94, a prize-winning children’s author, died of heart disease Dec. 13 at her home in Verona, Pa. She had Parkinson’s disease.

Over 47 years, Hodges wrote more than 40 books for children, including “Saint George and the Dragon,” which won a Caldecott Medal in 1985.

Her other well-known works include “What’s for Lunch, Charley?” and “Merlin and the Making of the King.” Two more books will be published posthumously.

She was born Sarah Margaret Moore in Indianapolis. A 1932 graduate of Vassar College, she earned a master’s degree in library science in 1958 at the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh.

As a library volunteer, she told stories to children and became a story specialist in the Pittsburgh public schools. Hodges also wrote and performed children’s stories for Pittsburgh-area radio and television broadcasts, including the “Tell Me a Story” segment for Fred Rogers from the mid-1960s to 1976.