Mrs. McCasey (Marge, to her many friends) was born in Hyannis, Nebraska, the firstborn child of Myrtle Leone (Fox) and Claude Clifton Crow. Her mother’s family had settled in Nebraska in the 1880s, while her father was a native of Abilene, Texas. Marge and her two sisters and three brothers were raised in Nebraska, Texas, Idaho and California, where their family settled after Mr. Crow’s death by drowning in 1944. Marge attended Napa High School and worked in the laboratory at Napa State Hospital. She was active in writing letters to servicemen and –women during World War II, as her uncle and several cousins served overseas. Marge married her first husband the day after her seventeenth birthday. They moved between the Napa area and Michigan with their children before settling in Michigan in the early 1950s. Marge often spoke of her memories of the Flint-Beecher tornado of 1953, which occurred while her family lived on a farm in northern Macomb County. Marge divorced her husband in 1956 and raised herchildren alone while working as a dispensing optician.
She took great pride in being an independent woman at a time when many women could only dream of autonomy. Marge later owned The Eyeglass Shoppes in Warren and Riverland, Utica. Her customers remembered and spoke fondly of her even years later. Marge found true love in 1983, when she married John McCasey, a retired police officer and sheriff’s deputy. They had twenty years together before Mr. McCasey’s death and enjoyed traveling to California, Nevada, Montana, Kansas, the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and Texas. In 1988, they enjoyed the vacation of a lifetime when they traveled to Hawaii with Marge’s mother and siblings. For the rest of her life, Marge spoke fondly of the banyan trees, sunsets, Japanese gardens and other sights they saw in Hawaii. Marge was at heart a homebody who enjoyed birdwatching and working in her vast garden. She was an avid reader who also enjoyed photography, music, and watching Jeopardy, Law and Order, and NCIS (“that Mark Harmon!”). In her later years, she found joy in her dogs and cats and in playing with the rescue kittens fostered by her granddaughter. Marge loved her animals and could often be found with them on her lap.
According to her wishes, Marge will be cremated and her ashes placed next to her late husband John in the Great Lakes National Cemetery in Holly, Michigan. Memorial donations may be made to Smile Train, Inc., as Marge enjoyed reading about the positive effect her donations had on children with cleft lips and palates in developing countries. Marge is survived by three daughters and two sons: Carole Zegarski of Sterling Heights, Susan [Jim] Wagner of Durham, NC, Sheryl Decker of Wichita, KS, Robert [Margaret] Ledbetter of Hatfield, AR and Mark [Rhonda Moulder] Ledbetter of Cape Coral, FL; ten grandchildren; fourteen great-grandchildren; one great-great-grandchild; a sister,Kathy [David] DeVries of Joliet, MT; two brothers, Darryl [Janice] Crow of Modesto, CA and Norman [Kathy] Crow of Oakley, CA; many nieces and nephews; special friends Maxine Robb of Kalamazoo, Connie [Bill] McAdoo of Mesa, AZ, Eileen Carter of Fresno, CA, Ron and Chris Harlow of Limerick, MI and Ron [the late Irene] Grey of Eastpointe; and her beloved pets. She was preceded in death by her husband John, parents, sister Bonnie Poggi and brother Bill Crow, daughter Linda Czerwinski and grandsons Aaron Ledbetter and Jason Czerwinski.
