Margaret Elizabeth Payne McCraw

As a military spouse, Margaret lived in Okinawa, Germany, and later Texas. She was blessed to have traveled to Italy, Switzerland, Taiwan, Holland, Belgium, and France, and spoke often of how much she enjoyed touring castles, (especially Neuschwanstein), skiing in the Swiss Alps, walking through vast fields of beautiful, fragrant tulips, hiking with her young family through the Black Forest, collecting antiques from their travels, seeing the canals of Venice, the Coliseum in Rome, the Tower of Pisa, watching her children learn to make pizza in an ancient brick oven in Naples, or playing in the gazebo where the Sound of Music was filmed, and attending luaus in Hawaii with her husband on R&R while he served multiple tours in Vietnam. Her favorite book to read to her kids was The Cow Who Fell In The Canal after seeing the canals in Holland.

She was a member of Eastside Baptist Church in Copperas Cove, Texas, where she loved singing in the choir. She cherished her faith throughout her life.

Margaret worked for Copperas Cove Independent School district, initially at Halstead Elementary and later at Mae Stevens, where she led the Writing to Read program to help young learners connect the sounds of speech to their written form. She connected deeply with this program. Margaret sent her twins to phonics classes before they started school, and they became avid readers, which gave her so much joy. She loved helping impart that love of reading to other young children, and spent many hours decorating her classroom to help inspire them. After many years of service, she retired and made her home in Austin, Texas, to be near her daughter.

In addition to her professional work, Margaret loved making and decorating cakes, a creative talent she loved to share with family and friends for special occasions. Her cakes were a special way to show her love for her family and friends. Some of her family’s favorites include the baby shower cake for her first granddaughter - an exact replica of the baby shower cake from Father of the Bride 2, an R2D2 Star Wars cake, Power Rangers, and Blues Clues cakes. Her grandsons particularly remember feeling like they had the best birthday cakes of anyone at school!

Margaret was a thoughtful friend and loved picking out gifts with special meaning for loved ones. Her son in law fondly cherishes a boxed set of the Band of Brothers dvds. She stood in line for hours to meet the cast and the soldiers from Easy Company who inspired the film, and had them autograph his copy. She particularly loved children and animals, always having special toys and surprises for her favorite littles when they visited, and taking care to keep her bird baths full to make sure God’s creatures had water to drink and cool off in, especially in Texas.

She is survived by her daughters, Patricia (McCraw) Burns, Martha (McCraw) Robison, and Leigh Anne (McCraw) Levy; grandchildren Nicholas Burns, Ashton Pineau Baker, Peyton Robison, Andrew Robison, Daniel Robison, Jacob Wilmot, Scott Wilmot, Sophie Levy; and several great grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her parents, Willie and Evelyn (Newsome) Payne, husband Allen H. McCraw, and sister Barbara Payne.

A Memorial Service will be held on Monday September 8th, 2025 beginning at 5pm at Crawford Bowers Funeral Home in Copperas Cove, Texas