Rachel Mccants

Rachel Ann Bates McCants was born at home in Clifford, Pennsylvania on September 13, 1943 to Glenn and Sarah Bates. Her mother died when she was three years old and was raised by her maternal grandparents, Mamie and Walter Bates. Her father was away from home for extended periods, that being the lot of an engineer on the Delaware and Hudson Railroad during the war years. She attended a one room schoolhouse in Clifford where the older students helped and instructed the younger students. Her instructors during those formative years included her older sisters, Barbara and Rebecca. She did show a propensity for kicking her lunch bucket down the ice covered hills on the walk to school. She went to high school at Mountain View High School which was reached by a bus ride of more than one hour each way. After a brief stint in secretarial school, she started working as a sales clerk at Eynon Drug in Eynon, Pennsylvania. Later she worked in a record store as a sales clerk. A very young second lieutenant came into the store and asked for a record by an obscure jazz artist. They didn't have the record, but she compensated by accepting his dinner invitation ... she also made sure that the record was in-stock the next time that lieutenant showed up. She apparently saw more in the lieutenant than the United States Army did. One thing led to another as they tend to do, they were married on November 13, 1971. The lieutenant had by then reached the exalted rank of first lieutenant. They moved to Ponca City, Oklahoma , since that was where he would reclaim his job with Continental Oil Company. There was great distress on the part of her grandmother, who had somehow missed the fact that the Indian Territory had become a state in the years since she had left school. Her husband had to reassure her grandmother that, in fact, Oklahoma had become almost civilized and scalpings had declined considerably since she had studied geography. Later when the couple moved to Wyoming, the husband had to reassure her grandmother that the cowboys did not shoot up saloons on a routine basis in Billings anymore. Several short-term assignments in obscure locations allowed Rachel to experience much of the United States. She seemed to thrive on change and seemed to take whatever the new location offered and welcomed the entertainment offered. She seemed to enjoy meeting people everywhere in the United States. and they seemed to immediately take a liking to her. She went and enjoyed camping in quite a few parts of the United States. She became accustomed to elk bugling behind the tent and deer casually wandering through the campsites. Finally her husband secured a permanent position in Hammond, Indiana. During those years, both kids were born in nearby hospitals. The first, Stacie, was born in Valparaiso, Indiana and the second, Glenn, was born in the nearer town of Crown Point, Indiana. Three winters in the Chicago area convinced Rachel that the South had to offer a much more salubrious climate. Her husband accepted employment in the new firm of Valero Energy (actually the much-hated Lo-Vaca Gathering) and moved to the headquarters city of San Antonio, Texas. Later a position opened up in Corpus Christi, Texas and the couple moved there. Rachel had some experience dealing with kids with special needs and accepted a position as a special education aide at the nearby Wood River Elementary. She worked at that position for more than ten years. In 1991, she was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease and started her fight with that relentless thief of life and mobility. She fought an heroic rear-guard fight, never uttering a word of protest as her activities were curtailed. She liked to walk and that was taken from her. She truly enjoyed quilting and that was gradually taken away from her. In 2001, the couple took a trip to Scotland, Wales and England. Her disease didn't prevent her from experiencing the joy of new sights and sounds. Once again, even people who spoke a funny brand of English or Gaelic seemed to enjoy her presence and she enjoyed theirs. She seemed to attract people even in a pub, enjoying a "ploughman's lunch". Rachel died October 19, 2015 and is survived by her husband, Earle and her two children, Stacie McCants and Glenn McCants (Erika). The funeral will be Friday, October 23, 2015 at 2:00 P.M. at the Sawyer-George Funeral Home Chapel where we will celebrate the dash part of (1943-2015) and the release of her earthly woes.