Madeleine Pierrette Tanguay Case

MADELEINE PIERRETTE TANGUAY CASE
May 21, 1931 – August 21, 2017 Madeleine (“Lyn”) was born in New York City, New York, to Albert and Jeannette Tanguay, and grew up there with her older brother Raymond, and younger sister Suzanne. She graduated from Good Shepherd School and Cathedral High School, and worked first at Macy’s Department Store, then Butterick Patterns.
Through a mutual friend, Lyn met her future parents-in-law while their youngest son, Francis (“Frank”) Case, was in the U. S. Army’s infantry, fighting in the Korean War. At Frank’s mother Grace’s suggestion, Lyn and Frank exchanged a series of letters.  When Frank returned home, he swiftly made Lyn’s acquaintance, and he later married her in St. Mary’s Church in his hometown of Granville, New York, after his honorable discharge. At the time of his death on November 3, 2015, they had been married for 62 years.
The young couple began their married life in western Massachusetts, where Frank had relocated to seek work.  After the birth of their first child, Jeannette (“Jeannie”), Frank used part of his G. I. Bill to attend trade school to become an aircraft mechanic, and, eventually went to work for the field service team of a government contractor which often moved their growing family around the country to work various military contracts.  Their son, Leon, was born in Columbus, Ohio, before the family moved on to Florida.  After several years of this traveling life, they finally settled near Dayton, Ohio.
Following a diagnosis of autism for Leon, Lyn became an early advocate/warrior for appropriate education and other services for children with this disability, first in western New York, then in the Dayton, Ohio, area. Later, both she and Frank, as patriotic Americans, became activists for pro-life issues and Second Amendment rights. Over the years, Lyn was an active participant in the auxiliaries of Frank’s various veterans’ organizations—AMVETS, Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW), and the American Legion.
Both life-long Catholics, Lyn and Frank were long-time members of Sacred Heart Parish in New Carlisle, Ohio, and, after relocating to the Albuquerque, New Mexico, area, became members of St. Thomas Aquinas Parish in Rio Rancho.  As a devout Catholic Christian, Lyn was especially blessed by her involvement in Charismatic Renewal activities.
Lyn is survived by her brother Raymond Tanguay and sister Suzanne Tanguay, of New York City, New York; her daughter Jeannette and her husband Rex Schlicher, of Albuquerque, New Mexico; her son Leon, of Albuquerque; her nephews Raymond, Richard, Anthony, and Kevin Tanguay, of New York City; her niece Loretta de Jesus, her husband Robert, and their family, also of New York City; her niece Patricia Beebe and her family, of Granville, New York; her grandson Paul Schlicher and wife Luisa, of Snoqualmie, Washington; her granddaughter Mary Logan and husband John, of Dalton, Massachusetts; great-grandchildren Jacob Logan, Nadia Schlicher, and Shawn-David Logan; and assorted cousins.  Lyn was predeceased by her parents Albert and Jeannette Tanguay, her nephew Milton Ray Case, Jr., and her husband Frank.
In lieu of flowers, financial donations will be gratefully accepted by the St. Vincent de Paul Society of St. Thomas Aquinas Parish (www.svdpsta.org), St. Felix Pantry (stfelixpantry.org), and/or the New Mexico Autism Society (nmautismsociety.org).