August 14, 1953 – July 6, 2026
Cris was married to her love, Jim Gray, for 27 years after being fixed up by mutual friends who lived down the street. She was the mother to two beautiful daughters, Sadie Ritchie (Adam) and Emily Ross (Joel Smigell), whom she loved immensely, cherished, and was so very proud of. She left behind two greatly adored grandchildren, whom she loved spending time with: Eve and Tyler Ritchie. Cris also had a brother, Rich (Christina), and his sons and their families in Colorado, and a sister-in-law, Judith Ross of North Carolina. Cris was blessed to have had a blended stepfamily of Jennifer (Scott), Beth and Jeff (Lindsay), and 7 stepgrandchildren: Ashley, Josh, Nathan, Ella, Belle, Camden, and Addie who kept life fun and busy. Her ex-husband of 15 years, Steven Ross, preceded her in death. Her mother, Lois Joy, and father, Richard Earl, are also deceased.
Cris began her love of working with children at the Sarah Fisher Home for Children in Farmington Hills, Michigan, when she was a high school student. Along with jobs at Northwestern Hardware and Omni Spectra in Farmington, she worked in downtown Detroit at Reich Jewelry and at Foland’s department store in Livonia. Steve and Cris owned Erin Coin and Stamp in Redford and attended weekend coin shows with the girls. After her divorce, she put herself through college and went on to graduate from EMU in 1993 with a degree in occupational therapy. Cris worked with young adults with disabilities in her career at Goodwill Industries of Greater Detroit and then moved on to the Washtenaw Intermediate School District as a traveling occupational therapist, teaching job training, independent living skills, and cognitive and fine motor skills, until her retirement in 2018. She published a professional journal article, presented at an OT conference in Washington, D.C., and was a DOTC Award recipient. She was an OTR for 25 years.
Cris was a breast cancer survivor and fought colon cancer. Jim was there for her every step of the way.
Jim and Cris owned a cottage on a lake in the Irish Hills, Cris’s favorite hangout. A hobby of papercrafting kept her busy during retirement along with residences in both Michigan and North Carolina. She loved to read, loved being a dog grandma, and her friends were “the best.”
Cris is much loved by her family and will be greatly missed.