Margaretta A. “Margy” Glassford, a veteran of real estate and antique sales, who knew how to match buyers and sellers at a price on which all parties agreed, died Saturday at Browning Masonic Community in Waterville. She was 86.
She had dementia, her son Skip Glassford said. Formerly of Grand Rapids, Ohio, she and her late husband, James Glassford, lived for years across the Maumee River in Lucas County’s Providence Township.
The couple retired from Anthony Wayne Realtors, the real estate sales business Mr. Glassford founded in 1988. Afterward, they started an antiques business from which they didn’t retire. They scoured garage sales and auctions for deals on items they knew would command further resale.
“You know the people who are at the garage sale at 9 o’clock when they open? That’s my mom,” Mr. Glassford said. “They knew what was a good buy. They tried to buy low and sell high.”
They filled a 28-foot trailer with their finds, mostly antique or collectible toys, glassware, and jewelry, and after Christmas each year set off for Georgia and Florida, where they set up shop on the flea market circuit.
“This was in their 70s and 80s they’re doing this,” their son said. “They were amazing.”
Back in northwest Ohio in the spring, summer, and fall, they displayed their wares at area markets and during the Apple Butter Festival in Grand Rapids.
“They had a great eye for unique things,” Mr. Glassford said. Visitors to their display found glassware with decorative flourishes and distinctive toys — including items found in McDonald’s Happy Meals of decades past.
“They knew what they liked, and they knew what things were selling for, so they knew what to buy it for,” Mr. Glassford said.
She also knew how to bargain and what price to hold out for. At some shows, a patron might return throughout the day with a new offer on an item before money changed hands.
“It was a big soap opera almost,” Mr. Glassford said.
They got to know other sellers at the shows and those who stayed at campgrounds until the next event, as they did.
“The more they did it, the more friends they had,” Mr. Glassford said. She’d earlier owned antiques stores in Grand Rapids.
Her daughter-in-law Karen Glassford said: “We had so much fun. She had a great sense of adventure and was very vivacious. She was always excited about some new find she had gotten at a garage sale.”
The elder Mrs. Glassford enjoyed baking and decorating cakes and entertaining.
“She was so funny. When I first met her,” her daughter-in-law said, “she had a little decoration by her kitchen sink that said, ‘Skinny cooks can’t be trusted.’”
She received a real estate sales license after the family moved in the late 1960s to the Cleveland area. Her husband was a salesman, and his employer, a roofing and siding company, assigned him a new territory.
“My mom was very gifted at commerce, you could say,” Mr. Glassford said. “She knew the worth of money and how to make it work. She was born to it.”
When the family moved back several years later, she sold houses for Village Realty in Waterville. Whether taking a cold call from prospective clients or speaking to a referral, “she asked a lot of questions, so she got to know the people,” her son said.
“She was quite probing. She would have been a good reporter. And then she knew what kind of house they were looking for, what they were looking for in a property, and could they afford that,” he said.
Her husband, who had worked for a building company, joined her in sales at Village Realty. After receiving a real estate brokers’ license, he started Anthony Wayne Realtors.
“That’s quite a step, to form your own company in your 50s,” their son said.
She was born Jan. 25, 1938, in Tontogany, Ohio, to Jennie Mae and Gilbert Fletcher. She and her future husband met while first graders in Grand Rapids, where her family had moved. She was a 1956 graduate of Grand Rapids High School, where she was a majorette, a cheerleader, and senior prom queen. Mr. Glassford was prom king.
Formerly members of Bethany Baptist Church, she and her husband attended Bowling Green Church of the Nazarene.
She and her husband married July 11, 1959. He died Dec. 7, 2022.
Surviving are her sons James L. “Skip” Glassford and Victor Glassford; sisters Delcie Weber, Audrey Creps, and Rosemary Pangburn; seven grandchildren, and seven great-grandchildren.
Visitation will be from 6-8 p.m. Friday in the Hanneman Funeral Home, Grand Rapids. A celebration of life service will begin at 10 a.m. Saturday in the funeral home.
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