Margaret "Maggie" Mary Bell-Byrne, 76, died peacefully around noon on Friday, December 9,

2022. She was a longtime patient of Warren Barr North Shore nursing facility in Highland Park,

Ill., but until 2017 had lived in Elgin, Ill., for the previous 47 years. Maggie was born on January

9, 1946, in Evanston, Ill., where she grew up, attending St. Mary's Catholic School. She

graduated from St. Scholastica High School in Chicago. After working many years as a secretary

at the General Offices of the Church of the Brethren in Elgin, Maggie entered nursing school at

Elgin Community College, graduating in 1982. She worked as a nurse at various employers,

including St. Joseph Hospital in Elgin, two visiting nurse associations, Bartlett Learning Center

and other healthcare facilities, retiring in 2011 from her position as an admitting nurse at Elgin

Mental Health Center.

Maggie moved to Elgin in 1970, newly divorced from J. Michael Byrne, Jr., and was a single

mother, raising her son, John, through his entry into Northwestern University in 1986. She then

was remarried in 1987 to Thomas Cregier, until their divorce in 2009. Maggie loved being a

nurse and taking care of people, and people loved her and the way she always greeted

everyone – friends and strangers alike -- with generosity and kindness, not to mention her

sometimes quirky sense of humor. She had a lifelong love of learning and she surrounded

herself with bookcases overflowing with stacks of reading materials, with varying interests in

spirituality and the healing arts, as well as her family's Scottish and Irish lineage, not to mention

the Chicago Blackhawks later in her life. Maggie also loved animals, and treasured her many

dogs and cats she shared her home with for decades.

Maggie was the youngest of the five children of Alexander and Agnes "Nancy" (Ferrie) Bell. She

was preceded in death by her siblings Nancy Happ (Robert), Pat Senger (Vic), Alex Bell (Sandy),

and George Bell (Katie). In addition to her son, John Byrne (Barbara), she is survived by her

three grandchildren, Jack, Elizabeth and A.J., as well as 19 nieces and nephews, and numerous

great-nieces and great-nephews.

An interment ceremony (River Valley Memorial Gardens, West Dundee, IL.) and celebration of

Maggie's life will be held in the spring of 2023.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions can be made to the Anti-Cruelty Society of Chicago.