Obituary of Jean P. McCarty

JEAN PHILLIPS MCCARTY, 71

Jean Phillips McCarty, age 71, of Cincinnati, Ohio, passed away on Friday, December 21, 2018. She was born to the late Helen and James Phillips on December 21, 1947.

Known to friends and family as ‘Jeanie,’ she attended Stoneleigh-Burnham School in Greenfield Massachusetts before attending Syracuse University where she completed all the requirements for a bachelor’s degree in fine arts in only three years. After graduating from Syracuse, she joined a program led by the Presbyterian church in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to aid young homeless people in distress. While there, she managed a boutique which sold arts and crafts under consignment to support the program. Later, she moved to Dayton, Ohio to enter a master’s degree program in fine arts at Wright State University.

On June 30, 1973 she was wed to Robert Eugene McCarty at Saint Stephens Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, Pennsylvania. Jeanie returned to Dayton, Ohio then with her husband where she cared for their daughters born in 1977 and 1980 and became an active member in the community. She worked as a life insurance broker, provided customer support for Emery Air Freight, and handled telephone calls for the deaf. She developed a curriculum for a clay studio, financed the necessary equipment, proposed a clay studio program for the South Dayton Montessori School (SDMS), won approval for the program from the school’s director, and taught SDMS students for 30 years in her studio there.

Jeanie’s range of artistic abilities was very broad including sewing, weaving, painting, stoneware, precious metal clay, lamp work beads, photography, and fused glass. Her energy in the pursuit of all these mediums was boundless. She set up and ran booths at arts and crafts fairs in communities across Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana for decades, building a large following of customers for and collectors of her artwork.

Family and friends were Jeanie’s passion and delight. She struck up friendships and lifelong relationships with people she met wherever she went. Her creativity was boundless, as were her skills in cooking and baking. She had an amazing ability to create fun filled settings and to cater for gatherings of all sorts: family and friends’ birthday parties, Easter Egg hunts, school graduations, music recitals, bridal showers, weddings, and holiday parties for employees of businesses all along the I-75 corridor in Ohio from Cincinnati to Toledo.

Jean is survived by her husband, Robert McCarty, their daughters Karen Smith, and Katie Ann McCarty, and four granddaughters Lucy, Zoe, Sadie and Gwen.  She loved traveling and being outdoors, especially enjoying time spent on the coast of Maine, Cape Cod, Jekyll Island, Destin, Disney World, Phoenix, the Grand Canyon, the Pacific Coast and Central Valley of California, Vancouver, Alaska, Scandinavia, and even a trip to South Korea.

She leaves behind a very large number of loving friends and relatives. Jean wished to be cremated, and her urn will be interred at her parents’ grave site in Berlin, New York. A celebration of her life will be held for friends and family in the Dayton, Cincinnati area.

The family wishes to thank those who cared for Jeanie during her last few months including Home Care Program registered nurses and therapists, as well as Living Well Program aides, both from the Evergreen Wellspring Retirement Community in Cincinnati, Ohio. The family also wishes to thank the surgeons, physicians, nurses, therapists and Palliative Care Team who cared for her in the Surgical Intensive Care unit at the Christ Hospital Main Campus in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Arrangements were provided by the Thomas-Justin Funeral Home in the Kenwood area of Cincinnati, Ohio.