Matt Groening’s mother Margaret – the inspiration behind the popular cartoon character Marge Simpson in The Simpsons – has passed away aged 94, with the obituary revealing a whole pile of links to Groening’s family and the animated comedy which he created back in the late 80’s.

Groening died peacefully in her sleep, according to a paid obituary in The Oregonian, having had a life in which she taught high school English and proved herself a dab hand at needlework. She was one of many influences on her son Matt’s unprecedentedly successful animations; her parents were Matt and Ingeborg Wiggum, who met on a boat over from Norway to the USA – Wiggum being the name of the police chief of Springfield. The links go further too; she married classmate Homer Groening after graduating from school in 1941, while her oldest daughter Patty passed away before her. Her children’s names meanwhile include Lisa and Maggie, as well as Matt of course and Mark. We wonder what Mark did that was so wrong as to not be written into The Simpsons.

Margaret’s brother also survives. The Simpsons is the longest running animated series of all time, with the shorts running as part of the Tracey Ullman show in 1987 and going on to cover 24 seasons and 527 episodes.

Matt Groening
Matt Groening took inspiration from many of his family members for The Simpsons