Thomas McCabe

     Thomas C. McCabe, age 80, of New Hampton, Iowa and a longtime New Hampton teacher, died Wednesday afternoon April 30, 2008, at Mercy Medical Center in New Hampton.
    Mass of Christian Burial was held Saturday, May 3, at Holy Family Parish-St. Mary’s Center, New Hampton with Msgr. Carl Schmitt celebrating the Mass.  Interment was in St. Mary’s Cemetery, New Hampton with LeRoy Larson, Don Kubesh, Tom Sauser, Marty O’Connell, Paul Swenson and Merle Schwickerath as pallbearers. Military honors were conducted by the New Hampton American Legion Post #38 and VFW Post #5238. Honorary pallbearers were Don and LaVonne Johnson, Ray and Joan Ball, Wallace and Darlene Ernst and Wally and Glennda Murphy.
    Online condolences for Tom may be left at hugebackfuneralhome.com. Memorials may be made to Mercy Medical Center in New Hampton.
    Thomas C. McCabe was born Dec. 28, 1927, in Storm Lake, Iowa, the son of Albert and Ellen (Murray) McCabe. He received his education at St. Mary’s Grade School and High School in Storm Lake graduating in 1945. Tom enlisted in the U.S. Army on Sept. 25, 1946, and was honorably discharged as a Private First Class on Dec. 14, 1947. He then attended Buena Vista College earning a Bachelors of Science degree followed by Drake University where he received his administrators certificate.
    On Aug.1, 1959, in Breda, Iowa he married Barbara Knobbe. To this union five children were born. The couple lived briefly in Payton, Iowa, where Tom was a teacher in the public school. In 1960, the couple moved to New Hampton where he taught junior high math until retiring in 1989. He had also been a junior high coach of football, track, basketball and also the girls high school softball coach. He enjoyed gardening, bowling, fishing, hunting, visiting with friends and relatives, and especially enjoyed walking his dogs, Tassie and Molly.
    Tom is survived by his wife, Barbara; two sons, Chris McCabe of Mason City and Maurice McCabe of Owatonna, Minn.; three daughters, Maureen Valley of Leslie, Mo., Margaret McCabe of Lansing, Mich. and Colleen Lightfoot of Killeen, Texas;  two grandchildren, Brittany Lightfoot and Bernard Lightfoot Jr.; one sister, Donna Kelly of Corydon, Iowa; one brother, Daniel McCabe of Plano, Texas.
    He was preceded in death by his parents; his twin sister, Theresa Bunting; four brothers, Maurice, Murray, Francis and Richard McCabe.