Anne Crotty

Nancy, as she was known by friends and family, was born March 15, 1926, at home in Upper St. Clair Township, Allegheny County, PA, to John Pryor Cowan and Lillienne Freeman Cowan. She was a descendent of David Cowan who arrived in Allegheny County in the late eighteenth century. In 1932 Nancy moved with her family to northern Virginia when her father became the Washington, DC correspondent for the Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph and the Detroit News. The family lived for a five years in Georgetown, District of Columbia, before moving back to Virginia. She graduated from Fairfax County (VA) High School in 1943 and went on to receive her BS in Home Economics from Radford College, the women’s division of Virginia Polytechnic Institute, in 1947. During her senior year she met her future husband, John R. Crotty of Charleston, WV, who was attending VPI on the GI bill. They married on May 8, 1948, at the Falls Church Episcopal, Falls Church, VA. The couple first lived in a garage apartment on an estate in Lower Marion, PA, later moving to an apartment in Drexel Hill near Philadelphia. In March, 1950, they welcomed their first child, John Edward. Three months later her husband’s job took them to Parkersburg, WV, where in July, 1951, their daughter Anne Llewellyn was born.

Thereafter began her gypsy years, as she liked to call them, as her husband changed jobs and locations. From 1956 to 1960 the family lived in the down-river suburbs of Detroit (Riverview and Trenton, MI). Then from 1960 to 1963 in Berea, OH, a west-side suburb of Cleveland. And from 1963 to 1971 they were in Upper Arlington, a northwest suburb of Columbus, OH. It was here that her children graduated from high school, and she became active in a bowling league and a chapter of the women’s association that supported the Columbus Symphony Orchestra. In the mid 1970s she and her husband found themselves in South Milwaukee, WI from 1971 to 1976, finally settling in Toledo, OH, where she lived for the next 38 years. During this time she was a sale associate for the old Montgomery Wards department store at the now defunct Southwick Mall in south Toledo. She started off in notions, fabrics, and patterns until the elimination of that department. For a time she sold paint and wall paper until she was moved to the back office where she was responsible for receiving and returning goods to vendors. Her final years took her back on to the sales floor where she became the manager of women’s lingerie. Her children still remember desperately trying to keep up with her as she energetically moved about racks and displays!

After Nancy retired in 1996 at 70, she and her husband began taking long auto trips across the U.S. Florida was a favored destination especially while their son was working in Tallahassee and later when their daughter moved to Jacksonville to begin her career in elementary education. Besides Florida they made trips through all the states east of the Mississippi River plus Texas where San Antonio was a special memory. Their capstone experience was the driving tour out west where they passed through the Dakota Badlands, Montana, Yellowstone and Colorado, west to Salt Lake City and then to Las Vegas. They considered going on to San Diego, but at the time they thought that a bit too far—a decision later regretted since she never made it to California during her lifetime. The return route took them to the Grand Canyon and Santa Fe, NM. They stopped at the Cowboy Museum in Oklahoma City and then visited Tulsa. In later years they continued spending the month of February in Fernandina Beach, FL until 2003. In May, 2006, her husband passed away, leaving her a widow for the next 18 years. Thereafter her constant companion was Chloe or “Kitty,” a Siberian Siamese rescue cat she acquired from the Lucas County Humane Society. In 2012 she and Kitty moved to a senior independent living residence on the southside of Jacksonville, FL, to be closer to her daughter and grandsons. In May, 2015, at the age of 89, she took her final adventure—a cruise down the Rhine River with her son and his wife. This was her one and only European trip, and it was a thrill of a lifetime. Her final move in October, 2019, closed the circle on this nomadic adventure, bringing her to back to Allegheny County where it all began. Now she was in O’Hara Township, PA, where she had a lovely apartment at Lighthouse Pointe Residences. Located on a fourth-floor corner, she had a balcony from which she looked up the Allegheny River. There she often sat, admiring the changing seasons and cultivating flowers and plants, an interest she inherited from her father and for which she had a lifelong passion. Such pleasant surroundings, she was certain, added five years to her already long life. She was always amazed by her longevity which in years far outnumbered most of her family. Though towards the end, she often lost track of where she had lived and when, she never regretted the moves as she was always sure to make and keep friends everywhere she went.

Preceding Nancy in death was her husband John R. Crotty, her older brother Frank P. Cowan, and sister-in-law Anne E. Cowan. She is survived by her son John E. (Catherine) Crotty of Pittsburgh, PA, and her daughter Anne C. Woodman of Winter Park, FL, grandsons Jason Andrew Brady, Joseph Allen Brady, and Jonathan Aaron Brady; and the Brady great grandchildren: Joseph Allen II, Keira Ann, John Anthony, Teagan Byrne, Brighid Byrne, Rylan Bridget-Anne, and Jonah Harrison, all of central FL. Nancy is to be inurned January 18, 2025, with her husband of 58 years in the Memorial Garden at St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church, Perrysburg, OH.