Roberta Crowley, 85, formerly of Brandywine, MD, passed away on 27 January 2021.
Roberta was born on October 8, 1935 in Boston, Massachusetts to Sarah Albina Dasey and John Otis Dasey. She attended Girls’ Latin School in Boston. Later she graduated from nursing school at Massachusetts General Hospital. She married John Joseph Crowley VI “Jack” in 1957 in Boston and they lived in Weymouth before moving to the Washington D.C. metropolitan area of Fort Washington, Maryland. Jack passed away in 2007.
Roberta was known for her passion for connecting with people and providing encouragement for their greatest unfolding. She was a lover of the healing arts, and books, and could recommend just the right book for personal development for each individual she happened to connect with. She participated in the Landmark Forum for years and became a volunteer there after finishing all the levels of coursework.
She was also passionate about the arts and cultural events; she especially liked the Phillips Gallery, which houses Renoir’s The Luncheon of The Boating Party. Her calendar was often full enough that three “normal” persons could not keep up with her. Poetry therapy groups, Sweet Adelines in Vienna-Falls Virginia, cultural events with friends, ski trips, and always time for family. She was a women’s libber and women’s rights advocate, and also active in political think tanks. She was before her time as far as learning about the importance of food as medicine, and natural healing through supplements and herbal remedies as well as Macrobiotic cooking.
Member of St. Mary’s Church in Piscataway and then later Unity Church of Washington D.C., starting when Amalie Frank was minister there, she was quick to share with anyone who really took the time to ask her where she got her perspective on Spirit, that she’d had a NDE due to serious complications during childbirth with her fifth child, and they had to bring her back to life. She said often, that it was so beautiful there that it was hard to come back. Roberta would express, over the years, to family, “You know, I’m not afraid to die. It’s beautiful there!”
Roberta could keep a perfect house and cook anything that Julia Child would drool over and Martha Steward delight at, but she knew having a perfect house was not going to change the world, and so she held frequent “negotiations” with her husband in order to free time up to go back to school, go back to work, and once the children were on their way, move into a situation that allowed her to pursue her passions in healing work and her favorite social activities full time.
The most well remembered party she and her friend Donna Creighton threw for all of her social set in Fort Washington was the “Let it All Hang Out” party, where rather than impress each other with the usual, they and the guests all dressed in Hawaiian inspired outfits and got as “real and playful” as teenagers. Others talked about that party for years following.
Straight A student, she pursued her studies knowing how important to her parents, that she and her brother appreciate their schooling. Roller Skating and Ice Skating were some of her passions and she became good enough to pursue professional level training. She often liked to say how she also enjoyed spending summers as a young girl with her grandmother in Canada.
Roberta, along with her husband Jack, and with help from her parents when on the Cape, raised their five children in Fort Washington, Maryland, and the whole family summered annually on Cape Cod, which was one of Roberta’s many “happy places,” where extended family and friends gathered often to enjoy fireworks on the 4th of July and with day trips to Boston and the many special places on the Cape, Martha’s Vineyard, and Nantucket. Later they moved to a country home in Brandywine, MD.
She went back to school to study psych nursing and then went from Emergency Room nursing into psych nursing.
Roberta loved diversity and thrived in her appreciation for inclusivity. She loved hearing people’s life stories, opinions, experiences, passions, and hopes and dreams. She was also a great encourager of individuals forging their way and not looking to the societal expectations for their compass, but following their inner guidance.
She used to say “run towards what is FUN!” Knowing that our inner joys are often the best directional signals, and at a minimum you will at least meet up with people who enjoy the same types of things you do!
She LOVED music and the arts and had an eclectic and very diverse taste in music. She especially loved Barbara Streisand, The Beatles, The Gypsy Kings, and Karen Carpenter. Her favorite surprise birthday party was a dancing to Marvin Gaye pizza party thrown by her two then teenage daughters and their friend Crystal Davis and her mom. Alvin Ailey dance was also something that she thrilled at.
Roberta was so often like chicken soup for the soul for so many people. Nurturing… Comforting, down to earth, and soul nourishing.
She had a Great sense of humor and always welcomed levity in the midst of sharing life stories, and her deep conversations that could go anywhere with others on any topic, fearlessly.
Roberta was a very active woman and liked to pack her calendar with as much as she could.
Roberta was very proud of herself for not following the standard women’s magazines of her and her mother’s time, which were great at telling women how to be the perfect housewives and where to put the husband’s slippers when he comes home from work. She subscribed to Ms. Magazine as soon as she heard about it! Roberta was great to her family, and encouraged independence, and as her children grew she made sure to create a very rich and wonderful life for herself outside of being a mother and wife!
Roberta was very proud of her groundbreaking work done with a group of others in a Virginia hospital to (incorporate) healing modalities beyond pharmaceuticals, such as
She taught patients to move on from their pain through learning Radical Forgiveness, to helping victims of profoundly challenging experiences (abuse) to put their energy towards healing rather than spending their present energy on blaming and hatred and judging the person(s) who created their traumas. The realization that today is a gift is crucial, and energy focused on healing them creatively – poetry therapy and other modalities of self-empowerment were the important responses. This was just a small bit in her toolbox of healing though.
Roberta was interviewed by news reporters at her home in Brandywine Maryland when she was 80 years old for an adventure she had one afternoon when she spontaneously decided to go for a walk in the woods adjoining her eight acre wooded country home, without her caregiver, her Niece Krista, who had stepped inside for just a minute. Krista called the police to help find Roberta, and they were very professional and kind. When they found Roberta on a trail in the woods, to keep her from getting worried they acted like they too were enjoying a walk on a beautiful day. When she let them know she was a little lost, they said they knew where she lived and one officer kindly took Roberta’s hand and walked with her to get her back home, and the other officer, thinking it was really touching, took a photo. They later got permission and posted the photo on Facebook and it went viral, with an impressive number of “Likes.” It’s said that the story became known even in China, because they liked to see a story where the younger generation was helping to take care of the older generation of family.
https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/local/maryland/police-officer-rescues-80-year-old-woman-with-dementia-from-woods/65-104817803
Roberta was an amazing mother and wife. She is predeceased by her ex-husband, John J. Crowley VI, her brother, John, her son Brendan Gerard Crowley, her son Daniel Crowley, and is survived by her children, Brian Patrick Crowley, Mariangela Crowley Walker, both of Chapel Hill NC; and Kathleen “Kathy” Crowley, of Brandywine, MD; her granddaughter Krista Jean Foster and her great-grandson Benjimen William Krenzler both of Mechanicsville, MD.
A memorial service will be held online on Saturday, 20th of February 2021 at 10:00 a.m.
