SALISBURY — Elizabeth (Moss) McCabe Case died peacefully at her home in Pelican Bay, Naples, Fla., of natural causes on Dec. 23, 2010.
Born on Jan. 28, 1916, in Hollywood, Calif., she would have celebrated her 95th birthday in January 2011.
Known as Betty to her friends and B to her family, she began her infancy in Los Angeles, as daughter to Florence (DeMott) Moss (1885-1959) of Brooklyn, N.Y., and Harold Newton Moss (1882-1928) of Glen Ridge, N.J., after her mother and brother Donald DeMott Moss (1910-1980) traveled by rail on the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway from Brooklyn west in 1915.
Betty, her mother and brother returned east and settled in Glen Ridge, where Betty’s mother formed a business partnership with friend Maude Averill and conducted business under the name of Moss & Averill as a personal shopping and decorating service located at 25 West 51st St. in Manhattan between 1917 and the late 1940s. Betty’s mother later married Edward J. Snow in 1949. He died in 1959.
The close-knit community of Glen Ridge and the surrounding Essex County, N.J., suburbs of New York City provided Betty Moss with a milieu that nurtured four distinct qualities: a talent for theatrical productions, a lifelong interest in music, extraordinary social skills and a gift for fund-raising. As early as her scholarship attendance at her beloved Camp Cotuit in West Barnstable, Cape Cod, Mass., during the Depression years of 1928-30, a camp for girls directed by the Schumacher sisters of New Rochelle, N.Y., her acting abilities were recognized and were further developed through her academic years to reach culmination in her participation in the Dramatic Club of Glen Ridge High School, which elected her its president in her senior year, 1932.
In 1934, Paramount Pictures asked for a screen test; however, she acquiesced to her mother’s pragmatic request that she join the staff of Moss & Averill and thus began a successful career as a personal shopper in the era in which the large Manhattan department stores had not yet moved branches into major suburbs. The firm’s clientele came from as far away as the Carolinas.
Betty’s acting became an avocation between the years 1936-46 as a member of the Montclair Operetta Club.
She was introduced by her friend Elsie Meyer McCabe of Montclair, N.J., to her first husband, Ambrose Church McCabe (1910-1973). They were married in September 1941 at the Essex Fells home of Walter S. and Mary Hadley Case, and her closest childhood friend, Rosemary Case.
The newlywed McCabes settled in Orange, N.J.; Inwood Road, Essex Fells; and, ultimately, in Brewster, Putnam County, N.Y. While four children of this marriage matured, Betty became an intrepid community volunteer. She was a tireless fundraiser for and founder of the Putnam Community Hospital, Carmel, N.Y., in the 1960s and served as its first chairperson of the hospital board of directors. She also was a founder of the hospital’s women’s auxiliary, founder of the auxiliary’s main fund-raising arm, the Eagle Eye Thrift Shop, and the Putnam Community Hospital Antiques Flea Market under the management of Russell Carrell, who is also credited with the management of Manhattan’s Winter Antiques Show benefiting the East Side Settlement House. Upon the death of her husband in 1973, Betty relocated to Salisbury, where the family continues to summer at an enclave belonging formerly to Ambrose McCabe’s mother Pauline Wells McCabe.
While establishing herself in Salisbury, Betty enjoyed closer proximity to extended family and friends of early New Jersey life, joined the Congregational Church of Salisbury where she lent her voice to the choir and volunteered at the Salisbury Fall Festival. In October 1975, the Congregational church became the setting of Betty McCabe’s marriage to Hadley Case, of Naples, Fla. The groom was the son of the same Case family in whose home Betty and her first husband were married in 1941. Hadley Case was chairman and CEO of Case, Pomeroy & Co., 529 Fifth Ave., New York City.
Whatever their locale, Betty and Hadley Case bettered the lives of those around them and served unpretentiously to better thoughtfully chosen philanthropic and civic organizations with their time, talent and treasure. Tapped by Naples scion and close friend Curtis Frank, the Cases lent their support to Myra Janco Daniels and the Naples Philharmonic in its formative years and they strove to revitalize The Conservancy of Southwest Florida. Betty Case established a history of charitable giving in her own right to Naples organizations such as The Phil, The Naples Hospital, Planned Parenthood and Hospice of Naples.
Although confined to her home in Pelican Bay for the last six years of her life, Betty remained a bright spirit in her cameo role, exhibited a characteristic sense of humor and modeled a generous portion of grace.
She is survived by daughter Ellen D. McCabe and husband Richard L. Middleton of Santa Fe, N.M.; daughter Caroline C. McCabe of Naples, and Santiago Atitlan, Guatemala; son Frank D. McCabe and wife, Leslea Burton McCabe of Midland, Tex.; and daughter Elizabeth McCabe Keith and husband, Douglas B. Keith, of Lafayette, La. Additionally, she was very proud of her 10 grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.
Betty Case especially cherished her relationships with Mary Case Durham of Scottsdale, Ariz.; Rosalie Case Clark and husband, Robert H. Clark, of Greenwich, Conn.; Deborah Case of Santa Fe; and Julie Case of Woodstock, N.Y., who are all daughters of Hadley Case and his first wife, Julie Ill, and the Case family’s five grandchildren.
Betty Case’s family wishes to acknowledge with gratitude the extraordinary care provided by the loyal caregivers of Senior Bridge of Naples and especially express thanksgiving for the devotion of Betty Case’s full-time LPN companion, Celeste Gabriel, for her 12 years of constant attentiveness to our matriarch.
A Naples memorial service is to be held at 1 p.m. on Jan. 29, 2011, in the sculpture garden at the Philharmonic Center in Naples. A Salisbury memorial service with interment to follow is to be held at the Congregational Church of Salisbury at a summer date to be determined.
In lieu of flowers, contributions may be sent to The Philharmonic Center for the Arts, 5833 Pelican Bay Blvd., Naples, FL 34108 or Hospice of Northwest Connecticut.
