Carol Crane de Casembroot (Cranie) passed away on Nov. 10, 2015, after a long illness, in Dickinson, Texas.
Carol was born Carol Schneider in Montclair, N.J., in 1942, where she lived with her parents, Carl and Alice, and her sisters, Nancy and Sally. The family moved to Palos Verdes in California when she was 16, and after high school there, she studied the arts at college in Denver, Colo., before marrying Bob Crane and having her three children, Sandra (John Baehr), Bobby (Nina) and Cindy (Joe McKinnon).
Her many passions in life included dancing, which she taught in New York, flying, sailing—mostly on the California coast, to Mexico and once raced to Hawaii—as well as sewing, flower arranging and birds. Her great ability as a nurse led her to run 10 operating rooms in Ventura, after which she worked in Sun Valley at Moritz Hospital, and then to her last assignment in Houston, Texas. She also spent time in Angkor Wat, where she helped train nursing staff in the Cambodia Children’s Hospital with her friend Suzy Werner for Doctors Without Borders.
Her extraordinary spirit of adventure meant that her life was full and well lived, even before she met the last love of her life, her husband, Mark, with whom she bought a beautiful sailboat, Kala, and planned to spend her retirement cruising around the world with him. Sadly, she became ill before that last dream was fulfilled, but she and Mark had lots of adventure-planning joy in Texas in the meantime.
She will be greatly missed for her natural warmth, friendship and infectious laugh and smile by all who worked with her or knew her as a friend, and by her whole family, her husband, Mark (de Casembroot) and her grandchildren, Jacob, Katie, Brandi, Cody and Jessie.
There will be a celebration of Cranie’s life on Dec. 22 at 4:30 p.m. at the home of Sandra and Paul Willingham in Triumph. All are welcome. Please bring your memories, pictures and stories to share with Mark, Cindy and her Ketchum friends. Please call 208-720-7496 or 208-720-4298 for the address and to let us know you will be there.