Hon. Brian Leo. L. Crowe (former Corporation Counsel, City of Chicago), her mother; Rachel Basler (nee ·'Whitens) and her father, the late Capt. Bruce Ivan Basler, United States Army.
Zylpha is survived by her children, Kathleen (Dean)Barakat, Brian Alexander (Lisa), Christine (Michael) Delapp; her grandchildren, Brian Thomas (Katherine), Griffin Michael, and Matthew Aidan Crowe; Omar Barakat; and Alex and Jude DeLapp. Beloved aunt, cousin and friend to many.
Zylpha was born the day before Pearl Harbor, on December 06. 1941, in Alexandria Louisiana, where her parents were stationed prior to her dad's deployment with the Army. Shortly after, she and her mother returned to their hometown of Marinette, Wisconsin. Zylpha attended Marinette Catholic Central High School and received a Bachelor of Science in Biology from Marquette University in Milwaukee, WI. She relocated to Washington, D.C. for post-graduate studies, before eventually moving to Chicago, IL.
She met her eventual husband, Brian Leo Crowe, on Derby Day of 1967.
They married at Holy Name Cathedral in Chicago on February 10th, 1968.
Their first daughter, Kathleen, was born in 1969, followed by Brian Alexander in 1970 and Christine in 1973. She went on to work for many years at Queen of Angels parish in Chicago before retiring in 2003. Zylpha fell in love with the game of basketball after watching her father, Bruce (Wisconsin State Basketball Hall of Fame) coach high school basketball for many years. She was an avid fan of the Chicago Cubs, Chicago Bears, Golden State Warriors, and the Duke Blue Devils. While horses and horse racing were her biggest passions, few things brought her joy like her dogs, with a specific love of German Shepherds.
The activity Zylpha enjoyed above all, however, was spending time with her grandchildren, both in Chicago, Lake Geneva, WI, and eventually San Diego, where she and Brian Leo retired to in 2010.
They are her greatest legacy and will carry her light with them wherever they go.
In lieu of flowers, donations in Zylpha's honor can be made to the San Diego Humane Society and/or to St Jude Children's Research Hospital.
https://secure.sdhumane.org/site/Donation2
https://www.stjude.org/donate/donate-to-st-jude.html
