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Margaret “Marge” Groening, the mother of The Simpsons creator Matt Groening, died peacefully in her sleep April 22 in Portland, Ore., according to an obituary notice in The Oregonian newspaper. She was 94.
Her husband, cartoonist Homer Groening, died in 1996.
The names of Matt Groening’s parents (and those of his sisters Lisa and Maggie) make it obvious that the inspiration for Fox’s long-running Simpsons came from his family.
Margaret Groening’s parents met on a boat to America from Norway and settled in Everett, Wash. She married her high-school sweetheart Homer “because he made her laugh the most,” the obituary notes. She attended Linfield College and then taught English in high school.
Survivors also include her brother, Arnold; another son, Mark; eight grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren. Another daughter, Patricia, died in January of heart failure at age 69.
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