Verne Moore McGrew, Jr.
Obituary
Verne Moore McGrew, Jr. passed away on March 9, 2023 after a fantastic life of 98 years and 8 months. He was physically active and mentally sharp until his last minute. He is survived by his son Eric, his son Mark, his daughter Ann and his son Verne the 3rd. He is dearly missed by his children.
Mr. McGrew was born in Pittsburgh, PA on August 17, 1924. After spending most of his life in Washington, DC, he attended the United States Merchant Marine Academy and graduated with a 4.0 average. He was serving as an Officer on Liberty ships during WWII and one of his ships was hit by a torpedo that did not explode. After the war, he joined Standard Oil as an engineer and shortly after he married Barbara Ann Doherty in Washington D.C. and moved to Dover, DE where he worked as an insurance adjuster for GMAC. In 1966, he began working at Pratt Insurance in Smyrna, DE and eventually purchased the agency. Over the next 8 years he grew it into the largest agency in Delaware and it is still in operation. As an insurance professional he worked with the Legislature in Delaware to create the country's first "No Fault" auto insurance. He was on the Board of Directors of the oldest and largest bank in Delaware. He was active in community affairs and his church during his entire life. His great love was being on the water in any kind of a boat. His son Eric had a successful career in Insurance and later in Real Estate and is currently in Commercial Real Estate. His son Mark was successful in Insurance and later as an Investment Broker and currently owns some oil wells in Texas. His daughter Ann was in the National Guard and later spent many years as a "Traveling Nurse" working all over the country. She is currently married to a retired Methodist Minister and they travel the country in their motor home ministering to fellow travelers. Our father's third son, Verne III, that he had with the new wife, was able to be educated by our father and had a successful career in the US Coast Guard and later as a Correctional Officer in a high security prison.
In 1965 his first wife Barbara went to Idaho for a quick divorce from him for "Incompatibility and Irreconcilable Differences" citing Mental Cruelty. His entire life afterward he told everyone that he had divorced her for Adultery. In 1967, he made a fatal mistake: He married an illiterate 8th grade dropout Witch from Hell with 3, under 8-years-old, undisciplined brats. He contracted a not so rare, but debilitating disease, the "Happy wife, Happy life" disease. He desperately needed his wife to be happy. If not, she made life miserable for him. He did anything to keep her happy, such as, he refused to pay $50 a month for child support for my sister and me because, "I have a family." My sister and I understood the financial burden he was under. It's not easy to pay $50 a month when he was spending $200 each weekend to take his "family" out on his boat. Our father was what is called today, a "Deadbeat Dad".
His new wife would not allow him or his own teenage children to discipline or correct her children or teach them any social manners. She was a mentally ill pathological liar and a psychopath. I know this because when I was 17, she chased me around the house with a butcher knife screaming like an insane Banshee for the crime of talking to my own mother on the phone. She was constantly paranoid. Whenever my sister and I were alone together, like doing homework, the Witch would rant for hours about us conspiring against her. Her own three sons grew up to be liars, thieves, drunks, drug addicts and one who is a 'minor-attracted adult".
Mr. McGrew's demented, 2nd wife Margaret, was constantly, intentionally doing all she could to separate his children, his brother and his own mother from his life. She treated his brother and his wife and children and his mother like crap, always degrading them, convincing them not to come back. But, they too wanted to have time with our father so they put up with the witch. She lied more often than not, trying to create conflict and chaos in our family. She was insanely jealous of anyone who had something better than she had: A nicer car..."They're just showing off". A better boat... "They're just showing off". A bigger motor home............"They're just showing off." Sick in the head, rotten to the core, driving anyone away who attempted to be friends with our father. Her entire life's mission was to separate us from our father, literally, right up to his last breath. Unfortunately, she was mostly successful at this endeavor. She was a lousy cook. Dinner guests were always told by my father, when the Witch went to the kitchen, "Tell her it's good! Rave about her cooking!" And they did. It was sickening to everyone and very few came back for another dinner.
We loved our father and had to find our own way to counteract her lies. The good news to all this is there will be no grieving when the Witch dies. She already gave us 57 years of grief. We will sing and dance on her grave as we fondly wish her a speedy return to Hell.
This is a cautionary tale. Do not be quick to judge us as you did not live through 57 years of lies and tricks and deceit and constant psychological abuse. This notice should serve as a lesson to all: Be very careful and attentive, if you plan to bring a new spouse into your children's young lives. Don't think only of your own loneliness or desires. If you bring the wrong person into your young children's lives, your obituary may be similar or worse than this one. Don't criticize us, learn from our story. And understand we did not write this to ease our minds. Our minds are fine. We learned early in the game of how to deal with the Witch. Her rantings and ravings slid off of us like water off a ducks tail and we went on with our lives. This tale is for YOU, not us. Learn from it.
This stepmother was absolutely ruthless in her pursuit to separate our family. The only thing in her disgusting and pathetic life that she was almost successful in achieving. Some people are so miserable in their own lives that the only thing that makes them happy is to make other people miserable.