Obituary of Esther P. McCaskill

Esther Peterson McCaskill Esther Peterson McCaskill died June 18, 2011 at the age of 92. Esther was born May 28, 1919 in North Carolina to Luther and Esther Morrison Peterson. She moved to Texas with her family about 1920 and graduated North Dallas High School in 1936. She then attended Flora MacDonald College in Red Springs, NC on a scholarship established by her great grandfather Mark Morgan, who started and owned the Morgan Cotton Mills in North Carolina. After graduating from Flora MacDonald in 1940, she had several jobs in the area with the last being hired to help build the Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point near New Bern, North Carolina. In the summer of 1942, she married Roderick McCaskill who was in flight training for the Army Air Corps. She left her job to join her husband at the various training bases he was assigned to, until he was sent overseas during WWII. Roderick retired as a Colonel from the United States Air Force in 1971 after 30 years of service, with over 14 years of that service in foreign assignments in Europe and Asia. Esther was a supportive companion to Roderick during all of his assignments in the United States and those foreign assignments that allowed wives to accompany their husbands. After retiring from the United States Air Force, Roderick and Esther were in Saudi Arabia for more than ten years, with Roderick working as an executive for the Northrop Corporation. Upon retirement from the Northrop Corporation, Esther and Roderick spent a brief time in England, but decided to move back to the United States and selected Pinehurst, NC to be their home in retirement. They eventually moved to Blowing Rock, NC and Esther relocated to Boone, NC after Roderick's death. Survivors include her granddaughter Joy M. Auren and her husband Christian, her brothers Robert Peterson and James Harned, and numerous nieces and nephews living in many different places across the United States. Esther was preceded in death by her husband, Roderick E. McCaskill, her son Roderick E. McCaskill II, a sister and four brothers. Online condolences may be sent to the McCaskill family at www.austinandbarnesfuneralhome.com. Austin & Barnes Funeral Home & Crematory is serving the McCaskill family.