Margaret Groening, Marge Simpson Inspiration, Dies At 94

Margaret Groening, mom of Matt and Marge Simpson’s inspiration, has died at the age of 94.

Matt Groening is the creator of The Simpsons, and Marge Simpson’s inspiration was in ways clearly his mother — and yes, she was married to a man named Homer, the cartoonist’s dad.

An obituary for Groening explains that the template for America’s most commonly related to mom explains that the other “Marge” (she never went by the diminutive) died “peacefully in her sleep on April 22, 2013, in Portland.

The obit also tells us a bit about the life of Marge Simpson’s inspiration as she dies, and the woman who inspired the long-suffering wife of the funny TV dad appears to have some parallels with her blue-haired counterpart:

“As high school valedictorian and Miss Everett, Margaret’s highest honor was being named May Queen of Linfield College. She graduated from Linfield in 1941 and married classmate Homer Groening, whom she chose because he made her laugh the most.”

The piece continues:

“Margaret taught high school English before starting a family, and her love of language was apparent in the many Double-Crostics she completed (in ink).”

In real life, Marge Simpson’s inspiration had four children — Patty, Mark, Matt, Lisa and Maggie — with the two boys seemingly combined in the character of Bart for the purposes of the show. (“Bart” is reportedly an anagram of “brat.”) Patty predeceased her mother earlier this year.

Whether Marge Simpson’s inspiration was heavily taken from Groening, it seems the idea stuck even among fans — an online memorial guestbook recorded comments from fans of the show, and one wrote to the creator, “your mom became everyone’s mom.”