Margaret Downing wrote a history column for The Herald for about 15 years for Rock Valley Publishing, mostly selections from Herald editor Edson I. Carr, going back to the 1800s. She grew up in Harvard, Illinois, retired from AT&T/Illinois Bell in Rockford after 27 years, currently am administrative assistant at Rockton United Methodist Church, and a reporter for Rock Valley Publishing (which she calls "my hobby job” for the past 30 years). She is a member of the Zoning Board of Appeals in South Beloit. Besides obtaining old Rockton Herald news from the Talcott Library, she also spent several years transcribing the journals and diaries written by Roscoe’s Alice “Allie” Dodge (McCurry) in the latter 1800s. She writes, "So many of the people she wrote about, along with her and her husband Kay McCurry, are all still together in the Roscoe Township Cemetery. I have been a history buff for most of my life!"