Miriam Loretta Crowe

Also, Sister Miel, Aunt Miriam, Miriam and the Beautiful Princess.

No matter how you knew her – to me she was Aunt Miriam – she was vivacious, fun, secure in her opinions, loyal, willing to try new ventures, a college graduate, a dancer, a traveler and loved her family.

Miriam adored her father – “Bill Crowe. He was the best,” she always said. She then reminded you that you better not say anything bad him.

She was inseparable from her mother Loretta Connolly Crowe. And if you wondered about the Beautiful Princess, that was her role in a school play. She was the Beautiful Princess, her brother Kenneth said when asked about his Sister Miel. The entire family walked over to the school to see the Beautiful Princess. And Kenneth and Miriam walked to school together every day and played in the Woodside neighborhood.

St. Sebastian’s was the Loew’s Theater when everyone went to the movies.

Miriam lived in Woodside her entire life. It was the nation’s largest Irish-American village when she was growing up in the home of her parents Bill, also known as Bimmy, and Loretta, and her brothers Bill and Kenneth and her sister Gloria. Miriam talked about the changes she saw commuting on the 7 train into the city to work at first The Philadelphia Bulletin’s New York office and then at Young and Rubican, better known as Y and R. As Queens and Woodside diversified she viewed it in the changing people riding the train with her, But the nearly all Irish Woodside and her father the cop probably explains her love of the TV show, “Blue Bloods.”

It also saw her Roman Catholic religion as an important part of her life over the more than nine decades she lived. She was a devoted worshipper at St. Sebastian’s and an active member of the Leisure Club at the parish center across Roosevelt Avenue.

Family ties were important. She was often with her sister Gloria Zvinglis. She had four nieces, Susan DiRenzo, Patti Karow, Beth Crowe and Carol Hattler, five nephews, Billy, Jimmy, Kenny, Roy and Danny Crowe, six great-nephews and Ben Crowe, Tom Karow, Mike DiRenzo and Cole and Troy Hattler, and two great-nieces, Jennifer Karow and Marisa Hattler.

Aunt Miriam took her godson Roy Crowe to see Man of LaMancha.

Aunt Miriam adored Jennifer. When Jennifer invited her to help out when she selected her wedding dress, Miriam could not stop talking about it.

It would have been comforting to Aunt Miriam to know that when she passed, Jennifer was by her side.

Miriam was known by the scores of cousins whether they were O’Connells, Plunketts, Lynchs or the dozens of Irish surnames that composed the extended family. She was well known in the building she lived in.

While of Irish descent, Miriam somehow found her way into Italian American club circles. Perhaps it was the influence of her last boyfriend Mike or her friend Ellen.

When not in Woodside, Miriam spent time in Manhattan. She volunteered at a West Side soup kitchen, studied musical theater at the 92nd Street Y, saw the St. Patrick’s Day Parade, worked and socialized. And, she would go to the Jersey Shore during the summer.

At Y and R, she worked tracking how many times actors, actresses and stars appeared in commercials. She met Lance Balou, a vice president for NBC, whom she knew for many years.

Attending and graduating from Hunter College was one of Miriam’s proudest achievements. That was a new adventure. She always gravitated to trying new things.

Miriam also traveled to Europe, sailed on cruises, flew to California to visit Carol and her family in Beverly Hills, first with her sister Gloria and later by herself to attend Troy’s high school graduation. Her last big trip overseas was to Israel with her niece Beth. Miriam fulfilled her dream of visiting the Holy Land.

Late in life, she earned her driver’s license. She drove slowly and carefully. She would buy a used Nissan. Eventually, she bought her second car, a brand new Honda.

She embraced getting a cell phone, a tablet and a personal computer. She sought advice from younger relatives, took classes at the Queens Public Library branch a few blocks from her home and relied on people in the building to assist.

Always a Woodside resident, Miriam had her routines that took her across the neighborhood. There was walking up to Skillman Ave to get her morning coffee. She shopped at the grocery store down the street from there. She was at the restaurant La Fleur so often that the owners became a second family. She loved the French food served at Bistro Eloise. When the restaurant moved to East Elmhurst she followed it to continue dining.

No matter where Miriam went, she was always generous to her family and to those she encountered. Her tipping was legendary.

When we leave St. Sebastian’s, we will head to Calvary Cemetery. Miriam will be interred with her parents, fulfilling her wish.