Margaret Alice Middleton died last month, just three weeks shy of her 65th birthday.

From 1987 to 1997, "Maggie" and her life partner Jane Hamborsky built a business from selling muffins at the Carrboro Farmer's Market to running Maggie's Cafe & Espresso Bar, a European-style eatery famous for Jane's espresso milkshakes and Maggie's chicken salad sandwiches.

"She got her juniper berries from Yugoslavia for that," Jane said last week. "She was real picky about what went into it. The juniper berries were her magical little secret that a lot of people wouldn't even think of."

For the past dozen years, Maggie focused on freelance viola playing, most recently in a Bach Cantata at Chapel of the Cross, her home church. She had played Bach just about every Sunday for 14 years at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church on Central Park West before she and Jane moved to Carrboro in 1986.

She started baking muffins after their golden retriever Rudy ran into her. Maggie needed to find work while sitting still with a dislocated knee. She perfected recipes like double-chocolate Jack Daniels.

"You always loved to go over to Jane and Maggie's because, Lord knows, you were going to eat well," said the Rev. Tambria Lee of Chapel of the Cross. "Some of her roasted tomatoes could make me salivate just at the mention of them."

Lee remembers Middleton as a woman who used her gifts to serve others, whether it was helping church youth make their own pizzas after-hours in the restaurant, blending espresso milkshakes for the funeral of an elderly parishioner who had loved them or tossing Greek salad for 150 guests at the pastor's own wedding.

"It came in the French blue crockery that I always connect with her in my mind," said Lee.

Middleton had a particular way of doing things such that Lee visited three different grocery stores just trying to find the right ingredients for a sticky toffee pudding they both loved.

"Maggie had for years literally been perfecting her recipe," said Lee. "It took three rounds before she'd ever let me beat the eggs."

After studying music at Eastman and Julliard and cooking at the New York Restaurant School, Middleton kept music and food as priorities, whether for business or pleasure. She played in every annual performance of the Messiah at Duke University for more than 20 years, including last fall. She received an invitation to play again this December four hours after she died.

Middleton fought off cancer beginning in 1998, and it had been in remission for five years when a recent MRI found a tumor on her spine. Hamborsky said she died of a heart attack in her sleep.

"She just didn't want to do anymore," her partner said. "She slipped out the back door."

Middleton admired cyclist Lance Armstrong for his own battle with cancer and unparalleled success at the Tour de France. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to the LIVESTRONG Lance Armstrong Foundation at livestrong.org. A celebration of life service and funeral will be held at 3 p.m. on her birthday, Friday, July 10, at Chapel of the Cross.

jesse.deconto@nando.com or 932-8760