Saturday January 18, 2019, Margaret Grace Crane entered into rest at the age of 89. Margaret was born to Leigh and Sylvia (Walter) Sheppard on November 23, 1929 at her grandparents farm in Luana, Clayton County, Iowa. Her father died just before her 16th birthday. Her mother then married Oscar Leroy Meyers.
Margaret graduated from Elkader High School and took one semester of college before going to work for a lawyer in Elkader. She was so set on the fact that if you had a job, you do that job. When the temperature dropped way below zero the lawyer found her sitting in front of her typewriter even though she wasn’t required to be there.
In March of 1949 Margaret traveled to San Diego, California to marry the love of her life, Alonzo Byron Crane. Alonzo “Al” was serving in the Navy at the time. Once Al was discharged from the Navy the couple traveled back to Iowa. In 1950 they lost their first son Edwin Leigh. In May of 1952 she gave birth to their second son Alan Bruce. In early1953 Alonzo, Margaret and Alan came to Apache Junction, Arizona. They would lose another child between the births of Alan and their daughter Mary Margaret who was born in March of 1956.
The rest of their life was spent between east Mesa and Apache Junction. In 1962 Margaret went to work for Motorola GED. Having worked a short amount of time at Collins Radio in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, when Margaret was asked if she could do assembly work she bluffed her way in. She quickly went from assembly to lead operator to group leader then on to supervisor. With a couple short breaks in service she finally retired in 1989 with 20 plus years. Margaret and Al spent many years enjoying Arizona. There was countless hours spent at Canyon Lake. They had a motor home when they retired and used it often to spend time not only together but also with their grandchildren.
Margaret and Al celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in March of 1999 and she lost her love in on November 23 {her 70th birthday}of 1999. For another 19 years she lived at the same residence with her daughter Mary. In 2009 they were joined by John Healy. Mary, and eventually John spent many years caring for Margaret due to her many health issues. She is now at peace and out of pain.
Margaret was preceded in death by husband Alonzo Crane, son Edwin Crane, mother Sylvia Meyer, father Leigh Sheppard, step-father Leroy Meyer. She is survived by brothers Dale (Barbara) Sheppard, Robert Sheppard, sister Phyllis (Pat) Harrold, son Alan (Charlene) Crane, daughter Mary (John Healy) Crane, grandsons Jacob (Amelia) VanDevender, Jason (Melonie) VanDevender, Jonathan Crane, granddaughters Catherine (Carl) Ong, Angelique (Sean) Chermer, step grandson Scott (Chuck) Healy, step granddaughter Sara Swanson and 14 great grandchildren.