Owen, Margaret "Cookie"
11/12/1941 - 12/28/2023
Cookie Owen passed away on December 28, 2023, after 9 years of living with Alzheimer's Disease. She is survived by her husband Dan Owen; her children Anne Worsham Oden (Blair) and Joseph I. Worsham II (Katherine); her grandchildren Margaret Oden, Caroline Oden Hartwell (Hunter), Blair Oden Jr., and Rebecca Worsham, Joe Worsham III,. and Grace Worsham; and her siblings Howard G. Chilton Jr. and Wynne Chilton Baxter. She was pre-deceased by her beloved granddaughter Elizabeth Anne Worsham. Margaret Anne Wynne Chilton was born to Muggye and Howard Chilton in Dallas TX on November 12, 1941. Before she arrived, family friend Ed Marcus suggested that she be nicknamed "Cookie" after the new baby of comic strip characters Blondie and Dagwood Bumstead. The name stuck. Cookie grew up in Dallas. She graduated from Hockaday School, was introduced as a Idlewild Club debutante in 1963, and made her first visit to New York City that year with pianist Bobby Short as her tour guide. She attended Hollins College until her junior year when she married Dallasite Joe Worsham. After living in Hawaii, Japan and Hong Kong while Joe served in the Navy, Cookie returned to Dallas, gave birth to her children Anne and Joe II, and became a full-time housewife, mother and active member of the Junior League.
When she and Joe divorced in 1975, Cookie transitioned into the role of working mother. She found her first "real" job at Neiman Marcus and was chosen for the company's elite executive training program. That November on a lark she signed up as a volunteer at the Channel 13 auction, where she met her future husband, Dan Owen. In 1978 Ed Marcus persuaded Cookie to leave Neiman's and join a small West Coast company he financed, Williams Sonoma, as the manager of its first Dallas store. A year later she was offered a promotion and relocation to W-S headquarters in San Francisco, but she decided to stay in Dallas and marry Dan in 1980. She returned to Neiman Marcus as the first female Precious Jewelry salesperson in the flagship store and became a Certified Gemologist. She continued her interest in the culinary arts-- Williams Sonoma founder Chuck Williams often used her kitchen to personally cook the food that was photographed for his catalogs, and she hosted James Beard and other food celebrities when they visited Dallas.
In the late '80s Cookie retired from Neiman's and co-founded a home accessories business, MECO Designs, which sold pillows and scented items to upscale specialty stores nationwide. In 2003, Cookie retired from MECO to spend more time with her ailing mother and to be "Mamo" to her six surviving grandchildren. Cookie loved to explore the world, traveling with Dan to places like Mustique, London, St. Petersburg, New York, St. Miguel de Allende, Ireland, the South of France, Egypt, the Amazon, Machu Picchu, Dubai and Angkor Wat. She enjoyed playing mahjong regularly with groups in Dallas and Fort Worth. In 1998 she edited and published the 350-page Wynne Family Cookbook: "When Pappa asked the Blessing" for which she was honored with the Wynne Family "Sunbeam Award". She became a champion needle pointer-her Christmas stocking for granddaughter Margaret Oden won Best of Show in the 1995 Texas State Fair.
Cookie's Alzheimer's diagnosis in 2014 changed her cognitive abilities but not her personality. She remained her sweet, gentle self. She and Dan were the Honorees at the 2020 Aging Mind Foundation Gala. The Center for Brain Health support group program helped them form lasting friendships with other couples on the Alzheimer's journey. She enjoyed living in her home of 44 years with her dachshunds Zoe and Hans, and she stayed active and involved with her family and friends until the last weeks of her life. The family expresses deep thanks to Cookie's devoted caregiver, Betty Redden, to her personal trainer Rudy Peters, and to the medical professionals at UT Southwestern and Baylor Memory Center. We also fondly remember the care and longtime friendship of Parlia Brooks and her family. Most of all, we are grateful to God for allowing such a wonderful mother and wife into our lives. Funeral services will be held Friday, January 5th at St. Michael and All Angels Church, 8011 Douglas Ave. at Colgate, Dallas TX 75225 at 11;00 a.m. In lieu of flowers please consider making a donation to the Aging Mind Foundation, www.agingmindfoundation.org. or a charity of your choice.
