Ramona McCaw

RAMONA (MERRITT) MCCAW

Grinnell

Ramona (Merritt) McCaw, 83, a longtime resident of the Mayflower Community in Grinnell, died Friday, Nov. 11, 2016, due to pancreatic cancer. A celebration of her life will be held at 11 a.m. Wednesday, Nov. 16, at First Presbyterian Church in Grinnell with Pastor Kirsten Klepfer officiating.

Memorials may be designated to the Mayflower Community Human Needs Fund and mailed in care of the Smith Funeral Home, P.O. Box 368, Grinnell, IA 50112. Condolences may be shared with her family online at www.smithfh.com.

She was born Ramona Elaine Merritt in Clarence, Iowa, just east of Cedar Rapids, on Dec. 15, 1932. She graduated from Clarence High School in 1950 and married Eugene (Gene) McCaw, also of Clarence, on June 19, 1952. Together they operated the family farm southwest of Clarence for 55 years. It was there they raised their three children, Monte, Guy and Sharon.

Ramona had worked for the Clarence Savings Bank while Eugene was overseas with the U.S. Army in Korea. She was then a full-time homemaker until her children were all in school, at which time she helped start the first children's preschool in Clarence. She later worked as an administrative assistant at the Scattergood Friends School near West Branch, as elementary school librarian for the Clarence Lowden school district and then for many years as church secretary for the Clarence United Church of Christ.

Ramona loved music and was an avid singer, performing as a vocal soloist for many weddings throughout eastern Iowa. She also sang with the Koinonia Choral Society of eastern Iowa and was many times selected to perform the soprano aria "I Know That My Redeemer Liveth" and other solo pieces in the society's annual performance of Handel's "Messiah."

Ramona was a pianist and an accomplished percussionist, and also passed her love of music on to her children, two of whom later went on to sing at Iowa State University as members of the Iowa State Singers. Ramona loved sacred music and also jazz music and particularly enjoyed listening to the music of Ella Fitzgerald. She also enjoyed travel, both state side and internationally, traveling twice with her family to visit friends in France, Germany, Holland, England and the Czech Republic.

Gene and Ramona sold the farm in Clarence in 2008 and retired to the Mayflower Community in Grinnell. She often served as a worship greeter for her new church, Grinnell First Presbyterian, and was also a member of the Sunset Club of Grinnell.

Ramona is survived by her husband, Gene of Grinnell; and two of her three children, Guy McCaw, M.D., of Dubuque and Sharon (McCaw) Berner of Atlanta, Ga. Her son Guy is a family physician who practiced in Grinnell for many years before relocating to Dubuque in 2015, where he now serves as a clinic-based family physician for UnityPoint Finley Hospital. Sharon is a supply chain analytics manager for the Home Depot corporate offices in Atlanta. Ramona's eldest son, Monte McCaw, D.V.M., Ph.D., who passed away in 2009, was a small town veterinarian in Lake City, Iowa, who later went on to teach swine virology at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, N.C.

Ramona is also survived by a brother, Lee Merritt of Oshkosh, Wis.; Derek McCaw (Joy), an IT manager in Raleigh, N.C.; Travis McCaw (Lauren), who is finishing his post-doctoral work in nuclear medicine at UPMC in Pittsburgh, Pa.; and Tyler McCaw, currently a medical student at UAB in Birmingham, Ala. She also has two small great-grandsons who were her great pride and joy, William McCaw and Alexander McCaw, both of Raleigh, N.C.

Ramona was preceded in death by her parents, Wayne Merritt and Verda (Hodgden) Merritt of Clarence; her older brother, Glenn Merritt, of Cedar Rapids; and by her eldest son, Monte.