Edward McCabe, 85, longtime family physician in Puyallup

Dr. Edward Francis McCabe was the classic "family doctor." He made house calls. He handed out lollipops to children. He did everything from setting broken bones to delivering babies. He followed the lives and progress of those babies, some 2,000 in all, and they kept coming back to him.

A fixture in Puyallup, Dr. McCabe had a long life, full of sport, music, medicine and family. He died Saturday (Sept. 22) at age 85.

Dr. McCabe was born in 1916 in Idaho Falls and grew up in Spokane.

"He grew up fishing and swimming and boating,' said Lue McCabe, his wife of 57 years.

He received his bachelor's degree from Gonzaga University, then went on to get his medical degree in 1943 from Marquette University in Milwaukee.

Dr. McCabe entered the Navy, where he completed his medical training in the Medical Corps. That was where he met Lue, an ensign in the Navy Nurse Corps.

"He was scrubbing into surgery. She was trying to go see her parents in Sheboygan and her ride had fallen through," said Dr. McCabe's daughter, Robin McCabe of Seattle. "My father spoke up and said he'd give her a lift."

When Dr. McCabe was sent out to the Pacific, they continued their courtship in letters. Navy personnel weren't supposed to reveal their location in letters home, but Dr. McCabe devised a system. He and Lue both had the same map of the world. Dr. McCabe would put a pinprick in the letter, indicating the spot in the ocean where his ship was. When Lue received his letter, she would hold it up to her map to see where he was.

Dr. McCabe saw action in the Pacific, including the Battle of Okinawa while serving aboard the USS. Drew.

Dr. McCabe married Lue, and in 1947 they moved to Puyallup, where he started a private family practice. The McCabes had three daughters and made sure to instill in them their two great loves: classical music and medicine.

"I remember every Sunday after Mass, I'd go to the hospital with him while he would make his rounds," Robin McCabe said. "At the dinner table, it was all medical conversation. By the time I was 4, I knew all the muscles in the body, and I could recite them to him in Latin. I was cheap entertainment."

Dr. McCabe practiced until 1989.

Dr. McCabe loved classical music and was delighted when his daughters showed interest in, and talent for, the piano.

"He loved the piano above all," said Robin. She and her sister Rachelle McCabe Humphrey of Corvallis, Ore., grew up to be professional concert pianists.

Dr. McCabe took his daughters to music festivals around the state and kept detailed notes about what he saw.

"He was not a verbally expressive person," Robin McCabe said. "He was not a wordsmith, but he thought deeply about things. And even though he was not keen on sending his girls to New York, (Robin and Rachelle both studied at The Juilliard School) he liked to write us long letters when we were back East, and put a $1 bill inside."

Dr. McCabe involved his daughters in every physical activity he loved: tennis, skiing, fishing, boating.

"We were a very close family," Lue McCabe said. "He was bound and determined that the children would do everything with us."

"I remember him dragging me up to Mount Rainier," Robin McCabe said. "I was 6 or 7. I remember trying to hold on to his tow rope and it was too high, and he was tugging me in between his legs on my skis. And I was wishing I was at home reading a good Nancy Drew book."

Dr. McCabe is also survived by daughter Renee McCabe Burrows of Edgewood; his sister Mary Agnes Corrigan of Spokane; four grandchildren; and several nieces and nephews. Private services are to be held today. Remembrances can be made to the University of Washington Medical Center or Hospice of Seattle.

Caitlin Cleary can be reached at 206-464-8214 or ccleary@seattletimes.com.