A true force of nature has left the planet. Margaret Cheek Dunsford died on Tuesday, April 28, 2026 at 6am in a car crash.

Margaret was born on May 9, 1962, in Jacksonville, Florida. She excelled at everything she attempted. At age three she rode her dad's prized Tennessee Walker in the Mardi Gras parade down Highway 17 in front of the Grand Marshall in Orange Park, Florida. The horse was trained to show dance and she was a master at putting him through the paces. That was the harbinger of what was going to be her life. Margaret was loving, kind and embraced everyone she met. She had high standards for life. Early on, she worked for several years in a dental laboratory creating, cleaning & delivering prosthetics to dentists. She then became a Union Craft Service Technician providing snacks to crew members in the entrainment industry. However, her true calling was caring for people who needed her. Her exceptional talents were exposed in this way. Margaret spent her childhood next to her dad, an emergency physician, where she developed the skills and intuition to know what to do in most situations. During the last two decades of her life, she hired on to care for seniors as a companion. She excelled at this job and fell madly in love with every person she worked for. To say she put her whole heart into it was an understatement. Margaret spent her summers in Cashiers, North Carolina where she had an abundance of close friends. She would want me to mention them all by name but there are too many. She will be joining some of them in heaven. Another part of Margaret was how passionately she lived her private life. She got up every day with a need to bounce. She drove cars fast and wanted to go everywhere all the time. Her parents sent her to summer camps to expend all her energy. She went to horseback riding camps, snow skiing in Switzerland, surfing in Hawaii, etc. All these experiences only fueled her. She lived fast and free. She was a wonderfully protective daughter, sister, cousin, aunt & friend to whom family & friends were everything. She lived life in the moment. She never held grudges, didn't look back and didn't worry forward. She lived for the moment with love, grace and trusted God. She spread the wonder of Jesus to all who would listen.

Margaret was predeceased in death by her parents, Margaret & Ensor "Buz" Dunsford as well as her brother James H. Dunsford.

She leaves behind her sister and brother, Ann Dunsford Curley and John E. Dunsford (Michelle). She also leaves behind many cousins and a niece & nephew, Sarah D Gurganus (Benjamin) & Edward Dunsford.

She will be missed by her family, the people she worked for as well as every person she encountered regularly throughout her daily life. She was a rare shooting star with an incredible blazing trail. She had a deep heart for helping homeless people and would be honored if some chose to make a donation to the Sulzbacher Center for the homeless in Jacksonville Florida.

There will be a memorial service for Margaret on June 13, 2026. Please contact Ann Curley for details.
904607-0230

This obituary will not be able to do her justice. There are so many words one can say but the essence of who she was had to be experienced up front and in person.