SCV Reader March 2016

30 • THE Reader
Reader People
March 2016
ProFile: margo miller huDSon
Santa Clarita’s Icon of Style
Known by nearly everyone simply as, ‘Margo,’ for decades she dressed the SCV.
By Michele e. Buttelman
Features and entertainment editor
Margo Miller Hudson was born on a farm in Granby,
Quebec Canada as Margo Leduc, and still speaks with
a charming French Canadian accent.
Her mother died two months after Hudson was born. She
was raised by her father, a farmer, her aunt Elsie, and her stepmother
Marie Berthe.
Hudson said Granby was an industrial town, with lumber,
textiles, dairy and tobacco as major industries.
“It never grew that much, but it is adorable,” Hudson said.
Hudson’s family, on her mother’s side, arrived in Canada
from Liverpool, England, when her grandfather was only between
8 and 10 years of age.
“His father left him at an orphanage after his mother died
and in those days they would send children to work on farms
in Canada to earn a living,” she said. “His father said he would
come back for him, but he never did.”
Hudson’s mother was an English Protestant and her father
a French Canadian Catholic.
“Neither one spoke the other’s language,” said Hudson. “But
somehow they met, fell in love and married.”
When Hudson’s mother, Ruby, knew she was dying she
asked her sister Elsie to “take care of my baby (Hudson).”
“And she always did take care of me,” said Hudson. “Until
she died in 1998, my aunt taught me how to cook, how to sew,
how to set a table, manners, everything.”
Hudson’s father soon found he needed to supplement his
farm income by taking a job in a steel factory in Montreal.
Hudson was left in the care of a woman, named Maggie,
until she was 2 1/2 when her father remarried.
“My stepmother, who died in 1975, was wonderful,” said
Hudson. “She treated my older sister and I the same as she
treated her own children. I never saw a difference in how she
treated us, never.”
Hudson said she is has been “been very blessed meeting
people who have been giving and mentoring to me.”
Coming to California
When she was 19 her fiancé, Georges deSeve, asked her if
she would like to live in California after he was invited to follow
his boss who had been transferred to Glendale, CA.
“I said, ‘Are you kidding me? You mean where Rock Hudson
A newspaper clipping from 1978 shows “Margo deSeve” welcoming a
crowd to a fall fashion show in the Plaza Posada in newhall.
Margo and Bob hudson arrive at the hyatt Regency Valencia for the henry Mayo
hospital 40th Anniversary Gala.
lives?” said Hudson. “I was 19. As a teenage I was in love with Rock Hudson.”
In May 1960 the couple moved to the Cadillac Apartments on Glendale
Avenue in Glendale.
“It had a swimming pool and was furnished,” she said. “I thought I was
in total hog heaven.”
The couple was married June 4, 1960.
Even in 1960’s Los Angeles, Hudson stood out.
“I would go to the supermarket wearing gloves,” said. “I was like an oddity
even in 1960, because for me, when you go out you wear gloves.”
Hudson didn’t want to have children until she was 21.
“I didn’t want to be a child, having a child,” she said.
But soon she became bored and applied for a job at Sears.
“In no time at all I went from being a salesgirl to a manager,” she said.
Part of her success in selling jewelry and watches she attributes to her
exotic French Canadian accent and the fact she was well dressed and polite.
Sears offered her a position in the women’s department but Hudson
became pregnant and left Sears a few months later.
Hudson became an American citizen in 1966.
Moving to the SCV
In 1968 Hudson and Georges moved to the second phase of Orchard
Village in Valencia.
Immediately Hudson became involved in philanthropy
in the Santa Clarita Valley.
In 1969, she co-chaired the development of the
Foster Parent Organization in Valencia Valley.
Hudson ultimately fostered 11 children. In the
same year, she became a founding officer of the
Adoption Guild of Valencia Valley.
Through a friend who had contacts with a Los
Angeles modeling agency Hudson soon began
doing tea room modeling at World Fashions in
Santa Monica for nearly two years in the 1970s.
“It was a popular way to sell clothing at that
time,” Hudson said. “I met a lot of celebrities; I met
Steve McQueen, Ali MacGraw, Barbra Streisand...”
In 1974, Hudson became a business partner in
Aggi’s, an upscale boutique in Newhall.
“Aggi Lewis asked me to become her partner,”
Hudson said. “So I went to the bank, this was in
1974, and I applied for a loan.”
Hudson visited the bank without telling her
husband her plans.
“I wanted to have all my ducks in a row before I
approached him about this business opportunity,”
she said.
In 1974, the Equal Credit Opportunity Act
(ECOA) was passed by Congress that allowed
women equal access to credit. However, the finer
points of the law were apparently yet to reach the
SCV.
“The bank called my husband and told him that
I had been in to ask about a loan,” Hudson said.
“When I came home Georges asked if I had been to
the bank. I told him about the store. He thought
about it and then said yes. We had to take a loan
out against the house.”
Hudson said she appreciated Georges’ faith in
her.
“That’s what he gave me. He believed in me,” she
said.
After a few years Lewis asked Hudson to buy
her out so Lewis could pursue other interests.
Hudson purchased the store in 1978 and renamed
it Margo in 1982.
“I named the store M-A-R-G with a heart replacing
the ‘O’, I always wanted to do things a little
differently,” Hudson said.
Margo Fashion
Making the store a success was not without difficulty,
said Hudson.
However, Hudson persevered and the store
found a niche catering to SCV women who wanted
high quality, timeless fashion with the eye on current
trends.
Hudson said customer service was extremely
important to her success.
“We dressed our customers from head to toe,”
she said. “As we became bigger people began to
rely on us for sportswear, weekend wear, business
wear, formal wear, they really didn’t want to shop
elsewhere.”
Hudson said her fashion philosophy was to “sell
timeless fashion.”
“Shopping at Margo’s was an amazing experience,”
said Marlee Lauffer, President, Henry Mayo
Newhall Hospital Foundation, Vice President,
Marketing and Communications Henry Mayo
Newhall Hospital. “It was a comfortable yet elegant
respite; an escape from everyday retailers; a