David Parsons of Rice University said, "In her last works she seemed to have gained a fresh impetus and focus to her work that came from a close attention to what was going on around her and within her. It was as though Maggie was taking her cues from the shapes of the cell, the basic unit of life and also what was attacking her." Many believed that Margaret Webb Dreyer did her finest work while her cancer was in its final stages. Two years later, in 1979, 60 paintings representing four decades of her art were exhibited in "Maggie: A Retrospective" at the University of St. Thomas Art Gallery in Houston. Death and legacy Dreyer died of cancer on December 17, 1976, at the age of 65. Her final series of paintings was shown in a posthumous exhibition at the Contemporary Arts Museum in Houston from April 16 to May 1, 1977, and in 1979 a retrospective of her work was held at University of St. Thomas in Houston. Her personal papers are in the Archives of American Art in the Smithsonian Institution. Dreyer's biography is featured in the Texas State Historical Society's Handbook of Texas Online, she is included in the University of Texas at Austin's online "Gallery of Great Texas Women," and she was included in Who Was Who in American Art, 1564–1975. On December 20, 1976, Margaret Webb Dreyer was eulogized by 200 friends at the Rothko Chapel in Houston, where then Houston Mayor Fred Hofheinz said of her: "There are some people who by only living their lives enrich the lives of everyone around them." Don Sanders sang at the ceremony. Dreyer was also a flamboyant and widely admired personality and a leading light of the art scene long before Houston became a major art center. Along with her husband Martin and son Thorne, she was the center of an extensive art and literary community and was active in liberal politics and the movement against the War in Vietnam. Sandra J. Levy, writing in the Archives of American Art Journal, said that Dreyer "was a moving force in Houston from the 1940s to the 1970s." Houston Chronicle Fine Arts Editor Ann Holmes wrote, "She was a leader whose impact was both personal and artistic." And, as her husband Martin later said, "She had a charisma that drew diverse people together, from scruffy artists to federal