In Memory of
Rose Marie Crawford
October 6, 1924 – March 23, 2022
“You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.”
~ mae west
Rose Marie Crawford
Rose filled her life with adventures, big and small. She sailed through the Panama Canal with her husband and judged radishes at the County Fair. She was a pilot and a soldier, a writer and a Master Gardener. At a time when there were few women professionals, Rose lovingly raised her four children while working outside the home. She cherished her large extended family. She was curious about almost everything, and never stopped learning.
Childhood in Pennsylvania
Rose Eckenrode was born October 6, 1924 on a farm in Carrolltown Pennsylvania, the 5th of 7 children. Her father Ray worked in the coal mines and farmed, and her mother Catherine ran the house. Everyone worked hard. The kids wore overalls and shirts their mother made from cotton flour sacks – Rose loved them. The family raised and grew their own food. Rose was educated in a one-room schoolhouse, where her eyes were opened to the world by her beloved teacher Miss Snyder, of whom she would later write, “Miss Snyder traveled in the summertime and when she came back to school in the fall she would tell us what it was like where she had been. None of us had ever been out of the hills of home and hearing of flat places where you could see so far ahead that the road appeared to come to a point was like lifting a veil from our minds.”
Army Years
During WWII Rose left the hills of home and joined the army. She altered the birth year on her baptismal certificate to 1922, allowing her to join at 19 instead of 21 – a not uncommon practice. She was stationed in Washington DC where she worked in the Pentagon on “tabulators”- the precursors to computers – and made friends who lasted throughout her life. She traveled by bus on weekends, seeking understanding of new people and cultures.
Moving to California
After the war ended, Rose was discharged from the army and returned home to the farm. A group of women she had served with had moved to a large house in Hollywood, California. After hearing their stories of the ocean and flowers blooming in the winter, she decided to join them. Her mother asked her to wait until after Christmas before moving. She clearly remembered her last Pennsylvania Christmas, walking through the hushed snow to midnight mass as the bells rang out. She boarded a plane the next day, flying commercially in 1946. The Pan Am flight stopped to refuel 9 times between Pittsburgh and Los Angeles. California would remain her home for the rest of her life.
Early Life in California
Rose loved Hollywood. She got a job as a “tab operator” with the LA Department of Water and Power, despite the fact that while waiting for her interview a man told her “Lady, they wouldn’t touch a woman tab operator with a ten-foot pole.” She bought a car then figured out how to drive it. She fulfilled her dream of becoming a pilot. She moved to Santa Monica and swam in the ocean every day, rain or shine, for 1 year. At the age of 30 she left DWP and went to work at Hughes Aircraft, where she met Mel Crawford, a younger man with a bit of a reputation. Their chemistry was undeniable – they dated and were married within 3 months.
FAMILY LOVE
FAMILY
Shortly after their marriage, Rose and Mel bought a small house in Torrance CA where they would live for the next 28 years. They had 4 children – Leslie, Ann, Gary, and Ron. Rose continued to work in the computer field. She was the original master of “work-life balance,” deciding early on that family came first, and she would work to live and not live to work. It was common for Rose and Mel to take “mental health” days during the week – with and without their kids – for road trips to the mountains or the beach. Rose was an extraordinary mother to her often challenging children, seeming to know exactly when to let them find their way and when to step in. She worked incredibly hard, keeping her family protected and taking care of the household. Many of her nieces and nephews lived with her in Torrance, and she welcomed them with open arms. She retired while her youngest son Ron was still in high school, ready to set off for her next adventure.
✺
ALWAYS
FULL OF LIFE
Ramblin’ Rose
After she retired, Rose and Mel traveled the country by car for 6 months. During that trip Rose decided to embark on what would be her greatest adventure to date, selling the Torrance home and moving with Mel onto a 36’ Polaris sailboat, the Ramblin’ Rose. Rose planned carefully for this trip, learning celestial navigation, exhaustively studying charts of the Pacific and Gulf coasts, and learning everything she could about long-distance sailing. Rose and Mel, both in their 60’s, sold the house and everything they had accumulated for 25 years, moved onto the boat, and sailed from Los Angeles to Florida, taking turns on watch overnight. They took their time, staying for weeks in ports they liked, and for months at a house in Costa Rica while they waited out hurricane season. They experienced everything that cruising life could offer: exhilaration, boredom, new lands and people, and the occasional brush with catastrophe. When they reached Florida they were ready for a break from the open ocean. They had the boat trucked back to California, bought a VW Vanagon, and took another long trip across the country, visiting family and friends along the way.
Home in Vista
Rose and Mel continued to live on the Ramblin’ Rose in Ventura, but Rose was ready to return to a home and a garden. In 1987 she found a small old house in Vista, on an acre and a half of wild and overgrown land. Rose and Mel would both remain in this beautiful home for the rest of their lives.
During the next 5 years Rose became Nana to her four beloved grandchildren, Annelise, Ellen, Daniel, and Peter. They were the joy of her life. She canned and cooked with them, gardened with them, took them along on errands and adventures, and best of all, she told them stories of her life as a child on the farm, stories that fueled their fantasy lives throughout their childhoods. Rose and Mel proudly attended innumerable theater productions, ballet recitals, baseball and soccer games, wrestling matches, and youth orchestra concerts, cheering unabashedly for their grandchildren.
Rose joined the Vista Garden Club and became a Master Composter and a Master Gardener, sharing her knowledge with countless children as she volunteered at local elementary schools. She wrote Ask Rose, a popular garden column for the local newspaper, well into her 80’s.
During this time her sight began to fail her due to macular degeneration. Rose handled this great loss with unimaginable grace, through the strength of her positive attitude and her phenomenal memory. She cared lovingly and tirelessly for Mel through a long illness. When he died in 2013 she was 89 years old and nearly blind. She resolved to remain at home and independent, and to continue to live her life to its absolute fullest. She gardened and cooked and loved her cats. She attended the garden club. She took yoga classes and attended church and bible study. She traveled to Pennsylvania once a year to visit her beloved family. She received VA benefits for the first time, which gave her life-changing support for her sight loss. She had a blind reader and listened voraciously to books, mostly history. She loved to discuss ideas, politics, religion and culture. She was a fierce and vocal advocate for social justice. She learned to walk with a white cane and how to use an iPhone. She joyously welcomed 2 great-granddaughters, Bailey and Parker. She shared her daily life with her cat and soulmate Ellie.
For the last 3 years of her life she was blessed with loving care from all of her children as well as her strong and steady son-in-law Lee. She was doted on by many caregivers, particularly Gladys, who she loved as a daughter, Juana, who understood her in a magical way, “Big Dan,” Berna, Araceli, and Sandy. She was supported through the Palliative care program by her incredible nurse Jackie, and through the Hospice Program by her phenomenal nurse Lily.
Rose died on March 23, 2022, surrounded by family, with the sun pouring through the windows of the home she loved. She is survived by her children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, friends of the heart, and countless nieces, nephews, great nieces and great nephews, all of whom she adored.
We will miss her beyond words. Through her example, we are challenged to live our lives with the spirit of strength, humor, kindness, fairness, commitment, and love that she modeled every day of her life.
In Memory of Rose Crawford 