Rebecca McCue Crowell

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Official Obituary of

May 6, 1925 ~ November 12, 2016 (age 91)

Rebecca Crowell Obituary

Peggy died from congestive heart failure at home while sleeping. She needed full-time homecare these past 39 months as she had become blind from macular degeneration, had a severe tremor in the right arm, and had lost much of her physical strength. Nonetheless, she never complained.

Peggy was born in Medellin, Colombia to Edlo and Abigail (DeJongh) McCue, their third of four children. Her father was a coffee buyer for the American Coffee Corporation. She was given the name “Margaret” because her father said he wanted a daughter he could call “Peggy.” She was known as “Peggy” all of her life.

When Peggy was nine years old, she and her two sisters were brought to New York City to live with her mother’s twin sisters. That arrangement lasted seven years, during which the girls and their older brother, who had preceded them to New York by two years, saw one or both parents only six times.

In 1941, the family reunited when Peggy’s father retired. They moved to California and settled in San Jose. Peggy subsequently graduated from San Jose High School in 1943. Because she had decided at age 10 to become a nurse, she enrolled in the pre-nursing program at San Jose State College. After two years, she moved to San Francisco to complete nurses’ training at the Stanford Nursing School. In 1948, Peggy graduated from Stanford with a Bachelor of Arts degree. For the next two years she worked in the new-born nursery at O’Connor’s Hospital in San Jose while living at the family home. She then took a job at Stanford Hospital, San Francisco, where she had trained. For the next four years, she lived in the nurse’s residence, frequently traveling by train to the family home in San Jose.

In February, 1953, Peggy met John B. Crowell, then on active duty in the U.S. Navy. His ship was at Hunter’s Point Shipyard for overhaul. By the time the ship left in June bound for the Korean War, Peggy and John were engaged. They were married in San Jose on February 12, 1954. The newlyweds moved in September to Cambridge, Massachusetts, where John enrolled at Harvard Law School. By the time he had graduated in 1957, two sons, John P. and Patrick E., had been born to Peggy.

In May, 1959, the family moved to Oregon, where John joined the fledgling law department of Georgia-Pacific Corporation in Portland. The family lived in a rental house in outer Southeast Portland for 16 months, during which time daughter Ann Margaret arrived. In 1961, the family purchased their first home, on Hallinan Circle in Lake Oswego. In 1967, Peggy and John bought and moved into a larger home down the street which remains the family home today.

Peggy’s happiness was to be mother to her children and to support them in their interests. She took leadership and support roles in the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine (CCD) program of Our Lady of the Lake Catholic Church in fulfillment of a duty to Catholic instruction. She attended hundreds of youth sporting events, volunteered at the Lake Oswego Senior Center as a blood pressure reader, and served the library of the church for many years.

A homemaker to her core, Peggy sewed for enjoyment and economy, even making the occasional item of clothing for her children well into their teenage years. She knitted beautiful socks, sweaters and afghan blankets, several of which adorn the homes of her adult children today. She also created many artful needlepoint gifts around themes of special interest to their recipients.

In early 1981, President Ronald Reagan appointed John as an Assistant Secretary of Agriculture. Peggy and John moved to Arlington, Virginia for the next four years. While there Peggy made a number of new close friends and enjoyed many interesting experiences. She did volunteer work at the White House once or twice a week, in addition to touring the many sights of Washington, D.C. with her new friends.

It was while living in Washington that Peggy became interested in genealogical research about her and John’s forebears. She did an astonishing amount of research utilizing the many sources available in and about the nation’s capital, and assembled volumes of information for her family. Upon return home to Oregon in 1985, she pursued her interest in genealogy until her failing eyesight prevented further work. During this time, Peggy reveled in her last family role as a doting grandmother. And despite her deteriorating sight, with the help of daughter Ann and several close friends Peggy completed an autobiography, which she called “The Ties That Bind,” a most fitting title for a memoir of one to whom family was of primary importance. She proudly distributed copies to family members and close friends.

Peggy is survived by her husband, John, her sons and their wives, John and Sharon of Lake Oswego, Patrick and Susan of Tualatin, daughter Ann and husband Rick Montoya of Rio Rancho, New Mexico, grandchildren Jessica, Peter, Jack, Jeff and Mike, and by many nieces and nephews, and their spouses and offspring.

Peggy’s memorial service will take place at 10 a.m., Saturday, November 26, at Our Lady of the Lake Catholic Church, 650 A Avenue, Lake Oswego, where Peggy was a faithful communicant for 55 years.