Marguerite Bassong Konde

Here lies Marguerite Konde, born Marguerite Ngo Bassong: loving wife, devoted mother, gregarious friend. She loved life, fought to live to the last second, but life disappointed Marguerite by way of surrendering her to untimely death at barely 63 years of age. As every living thing with a beginning has an end, so too was Marguerite’s life. We are assembled here to pay our last respects, wish Marguerite farewell, and to ask the Lord Almighty to rest her Soul in perfect peace.

Marguerite “Eugenie Charlotte” was born to Pierre and Fernanda Bassong on January 12, 1960, in Song Mbengue, Cameroon, the second of three sisters. At birth, she was named after her maternal grandmother, "Ngobell"; but her father gave her three first names—“Marguerite Eugenie Charlotte.” She was known by each of these names in different circles and at different stages of her life. In Douala, Paris, and Washington, D.C., she was popularly known as Eugenie. However, when she moved to Georgia in 1993, she adopted the appellation “Maggie”in admiration of the former Prime Minister of the United Kongdom
Margaret Thatcher.

Marguerite began early schooling in Song Mbengue, and pursued secondary education at College Notre Dame in Edea and College Saint Esprit in Douala, Cameroon. She migrated to Paris, France after her secondary education in Cameroon and from there moved to the United States in 1991. A very caring individual, Maggie was interested in helping people, which triggered her interest in the health sciences. She worked as a phlebotomist and pursued studies in respiratory care. Maggie earned the Associate of Science degree in Respiratory Care from Darton State College in 2012 and, thereafter, worked at various sleep centers and then the Phoebe Sleep Center Neurodiagnostic Department where the onset of Leukemia caused her to cease working in May 2021.

"Ms. Maggie," as she was popularly known in the shopping circuit of Albany, eorgia—
Belk, Dillard's, JC Penny, TJ Maxx, etc.—was all about elegance. Her presence was at once enigmatic, enchanting, glamorous, and compelling. She dressed elegantly, epitomized glamor, and was, as a point of fact, elegance personified in all its splendor.

Maggie enjoyed being photographed and loved sharing the pictures of herself with family and friends near and far. Every Sunday, after adorning herself in elegant robes, she would summon Bebe, Arnelle, Cathy, or Alberto to come outside and take a picture of her. A picture, invariably, developed into a photography session until Maggie got a satisfactory shot, which she immediately dispatched electronically to relatives, friends and acquaintances across the globe.

Maggie and Emmanuel Konde met at the first Bassa Convention organized by Messrs Samuel Mbinack and Chris Bandon Bibum in 1993. Eugenie was crowned Ms. Bassa-USA at that convention. After two years of friendship and courtship, Emmanuel and Marguerite were married in September 1995 at the Douglasville Court House in Douglas County, Georgia. The couple was blessed with three children. “Maggie,” Marguerite Eugenie Charlotte Bassong Konde is survived by her husband whom she called Bebe, Emmanuel Konde; four children: Amandine Nonga, Catherine, Alberto, and Arnelle Konde; two sisters: Martina Bassong Sidibe and Fernanda Ngo Hieega Bassong; and numerous relatives in France, the United States and Cameroon.