Marion Cason

Marion “Sandy” McDonald Cason died May 25 in her residential care home in Simi Valley. She was 99.

Sandy was born in Milwaukee in 1925, the second child of Frances and John McDonald.

Her childhood memories include a military parade with a convertible carrying aged Civil War veterans and minor league baseball games at bygone Borchert Field.

She graduated from Rufus King High School, where her talent for home arts shone. A gifted seamstress, Sandy mastered tailoring suits of professional quality. She was such an exceptional cook, the Cincinnati Enquirer published her recipes. She loved preparing Martha Stewart-worthy Thanksgiving feasts, which she served in a pilgrim outfit she sewed. The proud granddaughter of an Irish immigrant, Sandy always cooked a St. Patrick’s Day corned beef and cabbage. A highlight of her life was visiting her ancestral home of Kilkenny, Ireland, touring the castle, stepping into pubs and hearing the locals declare anything “grand.”

A stunning redhead, her high school class voted her most likely to marry an admiral.

In 1949, Sandy met and married Joe Cason, a World War II veteran and highly regarded museum designer. They made their home in Chicago, where their daughter, Colleen, was born. And later in Cincinnati, where their son, Jay, came into the world.

For years Sandy turned a deaf ear to her kids’ begging for a dog. One freezing midwestern night, a shivering terrier appeared at the front door. “Mickey” moved into her home and heart. After that she was never without a dog. In her 70s, she began pet-sitting and continued into her 90s.

Joe and Sandy moved to Pensacola, Fla., in the late 1970s, when Joe served as design director at the Naval Aviation Museum. He designed a home they built on a lagoon off the Gulf of Mexico. She befriended an injured great blue heron she named Floyd and caught fish for him long past the point he had healed.

For a few years after Joe died suddenly Jan. 1, 1994, Sandy stayed in that house but later moved to Thousand Oaks to be near her children. She volunteered as a docent at the Stagecoach Inn Museum, teaching grade-schoolers to make soap from ceanothus and pan for gold. A natural with card games, she joined bridge groups and also threw pottery at Moorpark College.

In widowhood, she proved fiercely independent. On her 80th birthday, she visited Shambala Preserve in Acton and stared down a Bengal tiger. Sandy was formidable, surviving heart bypass surgery at 74 and breast cancer in her 80s.

She is preceded in death by her husband, parents and her only sibling, John. She is survived by her children Colleen Cason (Michael Comeaux) of Thousand Oaks and Jay Cason (Judy Elliott-Cason) of Vista; grandson Adam Atamian and his children Alex and Adam Jr.; her nephews Bob (Gail) and John McDonald.

The family extends our deepest gratitude to her caregivers at Hillcrest Royale Retirement Home in Thousand Oaks and Green Valley Home Care in Simi Valley; and to her loyal friends, who loved her wit and grit.

If you wish to make a gift in her memory, please consider Stagecoach Inn Museum in Newbury Park, Senior Concerns or an animal-welfare nonprofit like Frosted Faces senior dog rescue.

The family plans to hold wake at a later date. She is to be laid to rest beside Joe at Barrancas National Cemetery in Pensacola.