The Ford Family
Origins and History
Margaret Mary (Grane) Ford
Ancestors & Descendants
Margaret Mary (Grane) Ford
Personal & Family Data
| Nickname | Margie |
| Born | December 16, 1931 Lakewood, OH |
| Died | April 5, 2008 Cleveland, OH |
| Father | Joseph B Grane |
| Mother | Vera Grane |
| Siblings | Rosemary Pratt Mary Jo Colling |
Married
 |
November 5, 1955 Cleveland, OH |
| Former Spouse
|
William Frank Ford |
| Children | William Kenneth Ford, II Susan Coletta Sturm Kathleen Palmer Byers Elizabeth Seton Ford |
Bio
Margaret Mary Grane was born in Cleveland in the early years of the great depression, when the City was mob infested from prohibition and corruption in the police force was rampant. It took the famous Elliott Ness coming in as Safety Director to bring the crime under control.
When she finally, Margaret was an answer to prayers -- many of them, to be exact. Her older sister Rosemary, nearly 10 years her elder, had spent hundreds of hours on her knees praying to the Saints that "mother" would have another child. Of course, Rosemary then had to spend a great deal of time caring for that baby.
Margaret's mother Vera was the youngest child in a large Irish immigrant family. She was 37 when Margaret was born. Vera was an old mother, as was her mother, who had Vera at 36. Perhaps there was great pressure on Vera to have lots of children, and Margaret's baby sister Mary Jo was born 3 years later. While there were many cousins in this large family, they were all a great deal older than Margaret. She was not close to her mother or her older sister, whom she nicknamed her "tormentor" -- and the younger sis was a tag-along.
A great escape for young Margaret was when her dear father Joseph Bernard Grane would take her out to the country where he grew up, on a large farm in Independence. His parents were immigrants too, but they came from Germany. Joe's father inherited 90 acres and a home from his adopted family, so Joe grew up in a different world than Vera. He too had 7 children in his family, but they were a tight-knit group who lived together and worked the farm for a long time. They were a very happy and loving family, in great contrast to the stern Irish crowd at home. When Joe' younger brother Louis married, he received a piece of land from his father and built his home right there. Louis had three children who became Margaret's dearest cousins. She loved her spinster aunts, too, who never married but doted on Margaret all the time (much to Vera's dismay and discouragement). In the end, Margaret cared for all her aunts like a loving daughter, right up until the end of their lives.
Neither of Margaret's parents were educated beyond high school, so they wanted their daughters to go to college. Rosemary graduated from Ohio State and Margaret from Notre Dame College in South Euclid, Ohio, as did Mary Jo sometime later. It was at a mixer in college that Margaret met the handsome and brilliant young man from Rockford whom she would later marry. On November 5th, 1955 they tied the knot and their first child, William Kenneth Ford II, was born soon after. Although Margaret had completed her Dietetic Internship at a hospital in Chicago, she stayed home to raise her children once they were born. After the death of her second son, who was premature and died within 4 hours of birth, Margaret had her first daughter, and they named her Susan. Margaret suffered a miscarriage before Kathleen was born, so her angst must have been great when she received the news that she was pregnant again after just recovering from German measles. The doctors told the young couple that this child would be born with serious complications and recommended an abortion. Margaret's strength and faith was far greater than anything she ever faced, however, and she was rewarded with a perfectly healthy yet slightly premature daughter named Elizabeth somewhat later.
Margaret and Bill separated soon after Beth's birth. In August of the same year, with financing from her dear German aunts, Margaret bought her own home in North Olmsted, Ohio. She found work as a dietitian and eventually became the Assistant Head of Dietary at Fairview General Hospital. After 20 years of service Margaret was offered a severance package, along with many other shocked employees. She began consulting, but also began to reinvent herself as a Geriatric Care Manager; her specialty in Nutrition had been work with the elderly. Margaret completed research into helping patients with dysphagia to eat again, and published her work. Later, a short film documented her research and the techniques she created, so that other Dietitians could learn them. With her experience and education, Margaret teamed up with nurses and social workers to provide case management for elderly patients living away from family caregivers. This was truly special and rewarding work for Margaret, and earned her a living until her retirement.
You could call this time in her life "retirement" as she was not actually employed by anybody. Margaret was, however, busier than ever during this "retirement." She was an active volunteer with Catholic Charities and did focused work with refugees groups in need of help communicating with the medical field in Cleveland. She was involved at her church as a lay minister, but also in a group called "Generations of Faith" that connected older people with the younger crowd for mutual learning. She enjoyed taking classes at the community colleges on history, faith, and archaeology, and even got involved in a summer-long "dig" at an ancient Indian burial site in Lorain, Ohio. She traveled quite a bit and got to see the "homeland" of Ireland. She was a regular with her girlfriends in water aerobics at the pool three times a week, which really helped to keep her limber. There were many clubs and groups to which she belonged and gave of herself so freely -- such as her St. Augustine high school committee when she chaired the 50th reunion event, and the lunches with her "Red Hat" ladies where she wore those ghastly purple dresses. Her favorite pastime was of course her family, and the biggest giving of her time was to her grandson Matthew.
Matt had been born (like Margaret) to an older mother, and had a much older sibling. Margaret dropped everything to come to her daughter's rescue and she cared for that baby every single day while his mother worked. Caring for this baby was hard work, with all the napping and hugging that had to be done. Later, there were the monotonous movies to watch -- every "Baby Einstein" ever made was memorized by this poor woman. Soon she graduated to playing board games and Foosball with "the little guy," as she called him. She drove him everywhere and insisted that he take swimming lessons from her friend Mary, just as she had Matt's brother Michael do. Some of the last words she spoke, as she lay dying from lung cancer in the hospital, were of concern for him. She worried so and wanted to let him know that she was going to heaven to see her dad, because she missed her dad so much.
Margaret Mary Grane was born in Cleveland in the early years of the great depression, when the City was mob infested from prohibition and corruption in the police force was rampant. It took the famous Elliott Ness coming in as Safety Director to bring the crime under control.
When she finally, Margaret was an answer to prayers -- many of them, to be exact. Her older sister Rosemary, nearly 10 years her elder, had spent hundreds of hours on her knees praying to the Saints that "mother" would have another child. Of course, Rosemary then had to spend a great deal of time caring for that baby.
Margaret's mother Vera was the youngest child in a large Irish immigrant family. She was 37 when Margaret was born. Vera was an old mother, as was her mother, who had Vera at 36. Perhaps there was great pressure on Vera to have lots of children, and Margaret's baby sister Mary Jo was born 3 years later. While there were many cousins in this large family, they were all a great deal older than Margaret. She was not close to her mother or her older sister, whom she nicknamed her "tormentor" -- and the younger sis was a tag-along.
A great escape for young Margaret was when her dear father Joseph Bernard Grane would take her out to the country where he grew up, on a large farm in Independence. His parents were immigrants too, but they came from Germany. Joe's father inherited 90 acres and a home from his adopted family, so Joe grew up in a different world than Vera. He too had 7 children in his family, but they were a tight-knit group who lived together and worked the farm for a long time. They were a very happy and loving family, in great contrast to the stern Irish crowd at home. When Joe' younger brother Louis married, he received a piece of land from his father and built his home right there. Louis had three children who became Margaret's dearest cousins. She loved her spinster aunts, too, who never married but doted on Margaret all the time (much to Vera's dismay and discouragement). In the end, Margaret cared for all her aunts like a loving daughter, right up until the end of their lives.
Neither of Margaret's parents were educated beyond high school, so they wanted their daughters to go to college. Rosemary graduated from Ohio State and Margaret from Notre Dame College in South Euclid, Ohio, as did Mary Jo sometime later. It was at a mixer in college that Margaret met the handsome and brilliant young man from Rockford whom she would later marry. On November 5th, 1955 they tied the knot and their first child, William Kenneth Ford II, was born soon after. Although Margaret had completed her Dietetic Internship at a hospital in Chicago, she stayed home to raise her children once they were born. After the death of her second son, who was premature and died within 4 hours of birth, Margaret had her first daughter, and they named her Susan. Margaret suffered a miscarriage before Kathleen was born, so her angst must have been great when she received the news that she was pregnant again after just recovering from German measles. The doctors told the young couple that this child would be born with serious complications and recommended an abortion. Margaret's strength and faith was far greater than anything she ever faced, however, and she was rewarded with a perfectly healthy yet slightly premature daughter named Elizabeth somewhat later.
Margaret and Bill separated soon after Beth's birth. In August of the same year, with financing from her dear German aunts, Margaret bought her own home in North Olmsted, Ohio. She found work as a dietitian and eventually became the Assistant Head of Dietary at Fairview General Hospital. After 20 years of service Margaret was offered a severance package, along with many other shocked employees. She began consulting, but also began to reinvent herself as a Geriatric Care Manager; her specialty in Nutrition had been work with the elderly. Margaret completed research into helping patients with dysphagia to eat again, and published her work. Later, a short film documented her research and the techniques she created, so that other Dietitians could learn them. With her experience and education, Margaret teamed up with nurses and social workers to provide case management for elderly patients living away from family caregivers. This was truly special and rewarding work for Margaret, and earned her a living until her retirement.
You could call this time in her life "retirement" as she was not actually employed by anybody. Margaret was, however, busier than ever during this "retirement." She was an active volunteer with Catholic Charities and did focused work with refugees groups in need of help communicating with the medical field in Cleveland. She was involved at her church as a lay minister, but also in a group called "Generations of Faith" that connected older people with the younger crowd for mutual learning. She enjoyed taking classes at the community colleges on history, faith, and archaeology, and even got involved in a summer-long "dig" at an ancient Indian burial site in Lorain, Ohio. She traveled quite a bit and got to see the "homeland" of Ireland. She was a regular with her girlfriends in water aerobics at the pool three times a week, which really helped to keep her limber. There were many clubs and groups to which she belonged and gave of herself so freely -- such as her St. Augustine high school committee when she chaired the 50th reunion event, and the lunches with her "Red Hat" ladies where she wore those ghastly purple dresses. Her favorite pastime was of course her family, and the biggest giving of her time was to her grandson Matthew.
Matt had been born (like Margaret) to an older mother, and had a much older sibling. Margaret dropped everything to come to her daughter's rescue and she cared for that baby every single day while his mother worked. Caring for this baby was hard work, with all the napping and hugging that had to be done. Later, there were the monotonous movies to watch -- every "Baby Einstein" ever made was memorized by this poor woman. Soon she graduated to playing board games and Foosball with "the little guy," as she called him. She drove him everywhere and insisted that he take swimming lessons from her friend Mary, just as she had Matt's brother Michael do. Some of the last words she spoke, as she lay dying from lung cancer in the hospital, were of concern for him. She worried so and wanted to let him know that she was going to heaven to see her dad, because she missed her dad so much.
Education
St. Augustine Academy in Lakewood, Ohio for High School.
Notre Dame, Ohio for College.
Case Western Reserve University, obtaining a Masters of Science in Nutrition.
St. Augustine Academy in Lakewood, Ohio for High School.
Notre Dame, Ohio for College.
Case Western Reserve University, obtaining a Masters of Science in Nutrition.
Occupation
Dietician
Dietician
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