Awesome. Beautiful. Selfless.
Those are the three words that came to mind for Hope Wickliffe when describing her late mother, Margaret Paradee.
“She taught me so much it’s hard to know where to begin,” Wickliffe said. “She taught me Christianity, my morals. We never wanted to let her down.”
When Margaret Paradee came to Bandera, her family is certain she didn’t realize the impact she would have.
In addition to her work with Bandera ISD for nine years — some of those as president — she was instrumental in planning BBA-style shows alongside Peggy Ashmore and helped establish Shopper’s Jubilee, which later became Cowboy Christmas.
Margaret made sure to remain gracious in her everyday life as well. “Just the other day, a waitress from OST came up to my husband and me,” said Arianne Paradee, Margaret’s daughter-inlaw. “She told us that Margaret got her through a difficult time, tipping extra to make sure she could get by.”
Wickliffe, who worked alongside her mother for 30 years, added, “In 2008, when there were a lot of financial difficulties because of the economy, my mother told me to keep my ears open for someone in need. We found someone, and my mother gave me $75 to get them groceries.”
Margaret would also bake wedding cakes for couples who couldn’t afford one and even designed handmade wedding dresses.
“She made every single one of my formal dresses growing up,” said daughter Jeanie Oxler.
It’s no wonder locals came to adore Margaret and her store, The Gingerbread House, which sold trinkets, floral arrangements and furniture. The namesake came from the “gingerbread-style” homes of Dallas — homes that Margaret loved.
“I still have a gorgeous candle holder from her store,” said Jayne Bones, owner of Lily Pearl’s. “She always had such beautiful items.”
“She loved chatting with everyone,” said Bandera County Judge Richard Evans. “She was a very fine lady.”
In the rare moments she found spare time, Margaret was known to enjoy action- packed movies.
“You would never think it, but my mother loved the John Wick movies,” said Wickliffe. “Any cop movie full of action scenes, she loved them. But she was always busy with one project or another. She’d finish one then ask me what I thought about doing something else. She liked to stay busy.”
“She always thought about other people and other businesses,” said Oxler. “She was a forward thinker and worked with other businesses to ensure everybody could make a living.”
But no amount of writing could encompass the impact Margaret left on the community. With each interview, when asked to talk about her, the interviewees would pause and admit they didn’t know where to begin.
“That doesn’t surprise me at all,” Wickliffe said. “She was just an awesome woman. An awesome mother. I can’t begin to put in words everything she’s done for us.”
Margaret Jean Paradee passed away on April 23, 2025. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to Peterson Hospice.
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