[3] Colonel Stewart, was a U.S. Air Force military attaché to NATO at the time, had married Margaret, who was British, in 1950, two years before her birth.
Her father and stepmother later moved to her grandfather's former vacation home in Hope Ranch, California, an upscale suburb of Santa Barbara.
[3] Stewart met her second husband, Steve Cowper, at a New Year's Eve party at Nipper's Club in Montecito, California, in 1984.
[2] Stewart launched her signature program, "Look to a Book," in 1989 to promote children's reading and literacy, particular in more remote, rural and Native Alaskan villages in the state.
[2] She also traveled throughout Alaska on behalf of the Cowper administration's Health Care Commission, which focused on educational accountability and drew-up almost fifty recommendations to alleviate economic and social problems.
[2] Stewart oversaw the creation of the Commission on Children and Youth to promote child care, as well as the battle against high rates of substance abuse and teen suicide.
[2] She accompanied state gubernatorial trade missions to China, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, as well as the Soviet Union, which had opened business opportunities to Alaska during Perestroika.
[1][2] Michael Margaret Stewart continued to practice law in Santa Barbara and raised her son, Wade Cowper, who also became a California lawyer for a nonprofit.
[1] Michael Margaret Stewart died from the disease at Serenity House, a hospice in Santa Barbara on October 22, 2015, at the age of 62.