Nancy Leighton Calfee

1919 - 2013

Nancy Leighton Calfee, age 93, of Cleveland, passed away peacefully Monday, Jan. 28, 2013.
Nancy was the second daughter born to Thomas Edward and Edith Rowley Leighton April 26, 1919, in Cleveland. Nancy's older brother, Robert; and sister, Jane (Nellis), preceded her in death.
Nancy was a graduate of Hathaway Brown School and Smith College, Class of 1941, where she was class president for her freshman and senior years.
Nancy and John B. "Jack" Calfee, were married Feb. 8, 1944, and she followed him around U.S. Army bases from Fort Sill, Okla., to Camp Gordon, Ga., before he left for Europe in World War II.
Nancy was a staunch supporter of Jack and the firm as he practiced law at Calfee Halter & Griswold and a devoted friend and counselor to her many friends and extended family. Nancy and Jack were married for almost 60 years before his passing in the fall of 2003 at age 90. During that time, they had visited numerous countries in six of the seven continents.
Surviving Nancy are four sons, John (Andrea) of Murfreesboro, Tenn., David (Mimi) of Lake Forest, Ill., Peter (Jan) of South Russell and Mark (Debbie) of Lakewood; 10 grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.
Nancy as a child always preferred the outdoors to the indoors, a passion she continued in her life as a 40+ year member and past president of the Shaker Lakes Garden Club, a lifelong member and volunteer at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, where she received the Lifetime Volunteer Award, a member of and volunteer at the Possum Long Nature Center in Martin County, Fla., and a Pied Piper for her grandchildren through the woods on Clubside Road and at the Holden Arboretum.
Nancy loved the summer home at Put-in-bay, where she could be seen volunteering and working outdoors in a pair of Jack's army pants, shirt and one of her famous chapeaux and teaching her children to fish, water ski, and appreciate the beauty of Lake Erie and its islands.
She was also a past president of the Ladies Auxiliary of the Put-in-Bay Yacht Club. Her love of the outdoors also carried over to sports, where she was an excellent golfer, shooting her first hole in one at Mayfield Country Club at age 85.
A memorial service is planned at 4 p.m. Friday, April 26, 2013, at St. Paul's Episcopal Church, 2747 Fairmount Blvd., Cleveland Heights, with graveside services in Oakwood Cemetery in Pulaski, Va., Saturday, April 27, 2013.
In lieu of flowers, expressions of sympathy may be made in the form of donations to the Cleveland Museum of Natural History Natural Areas, c/o Jim Bissell, 1 Wade Oval Drive, Cleveland, OH 44106, and to the Shaker Lakes Garden Club ("SLGC Centennial Celebration Project"), 615 Battles Road, Gates Mills, OH 44040.
Arrangements are being handled by Brown-Forward Service, 216-752-1200.
For additional information, directions and to sign the guestbook, please log online to www.Brown-Forward.com.