Anna Mae McCracken

Anna Mae McCracken, 93, originally from Butler, passed away July 1 at the Royal Oaks Life Care Community in Sun City, Ariz., where she and her late husband, W. Ralph McCracken, were longtime residents.

In retirement, the couple moved to Arizona in 1972, settling in Wickenburg in 1975 for 19 years. There, Anna Mae worked as a school special education aide and a deacon and Sunday school teacher at the First Presbyterian Church. She also held offices in the local chapter of Business and Professional Women and volunteered at the Desert Caballeros Western Museum.

At Royal Oaks, she put her years of work experience in Pennsylvania as a licensed practical nurse to good use by helping in its health and day care centers, beginning in 1994. Anna Mae became a hospice volunteer and was an active member of both the First Presbyterian Church of Sun City and the Creative Quilters Club.

Always interested in health issues, she was also one of the first to volunteer for ADAPT, a clinical trial for the prevention of Alzheimer's disease then being conducted in Sun City and five other centers across the country.

In addition to her husband, who died in 2002, Anna Mae was preceded in death by her daughter, Barbara, in 1984, and her grandson, Jake McCracken, in 1989.

She is survived by her daughter, Jane Herlihy and her husband, Bernie, of Oakland, Calif.; her son, Thomas McCracken and his wife, Anne, of Baltimore, Md.; her grandchildren, Susan Serra, Stacey Sterner, Shawn Herlihy, Kevin Herlihy and Hollis McCracken; as well as her six great-grandchildren.

MCCRACKEN — Services for Anna Mae McCracken, who passed away Tuesday, July 1, 2014, were in Arizona.