Margaret Dieguez

Margaret (Margy) Ann DeBacker Dieguez was born May 12, 1937, in Kansas City, Missouri. She was the youngest of three children born to Joseph Francis and Pearl Adelgunda DeBacker. Margaret grew up in Warrensburg, Missouri. At the young age of 15 years, Margaret was stricken with polio. By the grace of God, she was able to survive and live a long and enriching life. One of her fondest memories was meeting the pope while on a trip to Italy with her parents.
Margaret attended St. Mary’s College and earned her degree in English. She married Robert Dieguez, and they relocated to California. Robert and Margaret had two children before divorcing in 1968. She went on to pursue carriers in teaching, Tupperware sales, and eventually creating the Carrier Center at College of the Canyons. She would be the first to tell you that working at COC was the most rewarding experience as she was able to participate and assist with the lives of many young people – she really felt this was her main calling. Margaret retired from COC in the mid 1990’s and devoted the rest of her life enjoying and following the lives of her children and grandchildren.
One of Margaret’s most proud accomplishments was to document her life in a book she had published called “Amazing Courage”.
God called Margaret home on August 25, 2020.
Margaret was preceded in death by her parents, Joseph and Pearl. She is survived by her loving sister and brother, Mary Jo (Don) Shinkle and Joseph (Franny) DeBacker. She is also survived by her two children, Robert (Oanh) Dieguez and Renee (Stacey) Zorn. She has seven grandchildren – Sarah (Eric) Schneider, Robert (Mandy) Dieguez, Nam-Chi (Tina) Van, Heather (Austin) Ansbro, Katherine Dieguez, Colin Zorn, and Chelsey Zorn, and four great grandchildren.
Margaret’s life was full of huge challenges and great success. Her story of survival and accomplishment should be a lesson of inspiration to us all. Her favorite poem that helped give her encouragement and purpose is as follows, “The measure of one’s courage should not be judged alone by how tall a mountain is but also by how tall was the mountain to the one who climbed it.”