Mary Elizabeth Crockett

Born on November 17, 1923 in Detroit, Michigan and died on May 9, 2025 in Novi, Michigan, Mary Elizabeth Crockett was the daughter of Ernest Benjamin Drake and Marjorie A. Drake (Aker); beloved wife of the late David Milburn Crockett for 65 years; mother of Jeffrey, Martha (Sneed), Paul and Amy(Carr); mother-in-law respectively of Christine, Horace, Theresa(Deceased) and Ken; grandmother of Andrew, Nicholas (Janelle), Alexandra and Sarah; great-grandmother of Benjamin; sister of Martha (Len-Deceased) Seale and the late Marjorie (Warren) Maxey; and sister-in-law to the late Richard and June Crockett and Laura McCammon. She is survived by many nieces and nephews. Known by family and friends in her early years as Mary Elizabeth “Sunshine” Drake, Mary graduated from Redford High School in Detroit in 1941. Her father, a professor of Chemical Engineering at Wayne State University, encouraged her to immediately enroll in summer school there, which she did. But his untimely death that summer put a strain on the family. During her years in college, she was also helping her mother navigate learning how to drive, balance a checkbook, and care for her younger sister Martha so her mother could work as a Registered Nurse. Mary successfully graduated from Wayne State University in June 1945 with a B.S. Edu. She married her college sweetheart Dave on July 7, 1945 while he was home on leave from his U.S. Marine Corps duty station during WWII. Mary started to teach 3rd and 4th grades in a Detroit elementary school, but in those days, teachers were not allowed to teach while pregnant. Jeff and Martha were born before Dave departed again, this time for the Korean War with the U.S. Marine Corps Reserves. Mary was a single mom during the Korean War years managing two very small children and a coal furnace. Paul and Amy were born after Dave returned, so raising four children became her focus and occupation. Mary was an excellent household engineer managing her household of six within budget. She was a talented seamstress and needleworker, making most of her own clothes and those of her daughters for many years, and repurposing and reupholstering furniture. She gave her black portable Singer sewing machine a workout! She designed and crocheted original altar lace for both Bushnell Congregational Church in Detroit and Meadowbrook Congregational Church in Novi. While primarily left-handed, she taught herself calligraphy using her right hand and in 1979 through Harlo Press in Detroit published a book on her church lace designs entitled “Church Laces- Creative Crocheting” with text done entirely in calligraphy. She was a very active lifelong member at the two churches combined, serving on many committees over the years in numerous positions including the Board of Deacons and the Board of Trustees, teaching church school, staffing rummage sales and working on numerous projects. She returned to school in 1973 at the age of 50 to Schoolcraft College for Medical Records certification and subsequently held several positions, traveling for some of her work and ending her 10-year career at the University of Michigan. She became serious about quilting in her early 60’s and took a design class that added to her already well-developed sense of color. She proceeded to make full-sized quilts for each of her children’s families for the next 20+ years. On her 80th birthday in 2003, the family held a quilt show displaying some 25-30 of her quilts at Meadowbrook Congregational church. Her signature brand involved a design element on the reverse of her quilts. She pieced by machine and quilted by hand, sometimes incorporating smocking or embroidery into her designs. She registered some of her quilts with a Michigan quilting society and had several appraised by the American Quilters Society. She thought she might have earned better marks had she not lost the vision in one eye in her forties, impacting the evenness of her stitches. Mary and Dave were both social people and enjoyed regular evenings of bridge (Note: Mary played bridge with the same group of college friends for over 50 years!), progressive dinners with friends, numerous get-togethers with family, and travel to Europe and Hawaii. With the birth of granddaughter Sarah their travels came to include several weeks every year with the Sneeds in Arlington, VA as well as a summer beach week at Rehoboth Beach, DE, a stint that lasted 10 years. Mary will be remembered by her family as a role model for living through tough times with grace and grit, and as a loving and devoted matriarch with a wicked sense of humor and infectious laugh (you always knew when Mary was in the crowd). Family was everything to her. Her legacy continues in her extensive body of needlework that she left behind including, three crocheted altar laces and a “neighborhood “quilt picture for the church, at least 6 crocheted full-size lace tablecloths, all different designs and yarns, numerous crocheted wedding and birth samplers, over 100 originally designed quilts, and endless numbers of knitted mittens, scarves and hats! She knitted, crocheted, tatted and sewed and her hands were never still. A service celebrating her life will be held on Saturday, June 21, 2025 beginning at 11:00 am at Meadowbrook Congregational Church, 21355 Meadowbrook Road, Novi, MI 48375, (248)348-7757. Memorial contributions in lieu of flowers can be sent to the church and designated to the Mary Crockett Memorial Fund; or to Wayne State University, PO Box 674602, Detroit, MI 48267 and designated to the Professor Ernest B. Drake Scholarship Endowment Fund #060762..

Mary Elizabeth Crockett

November 17, 1923 - May 9, 2025