Helen L. Crone

Helen L. (Snyder) Crone, age 97, of Williamsport and Lafayette died peacefully Sunday evening, June 24. She had been ill for the past week. Helen was born April 23, 1921, the daughter of William and Eva May Snyder in Camden, New Jersey, the third of four children. She graduated from Camden High School in 1939, and from Purdue University in 1943 with degrees in Home Economics, English, and Science. After graduating from Purdue, Helen moved to West Lebanon and began teaching English at the local high school. Helen was married to Thomas B. Crone, a Warren County farmer, on December 31, 1947, and took on the role of a farming homemaker. In 1963 Helen returned to teaching when she opened a private kindergarten in West Lebanon Elementary School. In 1967, she was employed to teach English, science, and home economics at Seeger High School. She expanded the foods department at Seeger, creating and implementing a gourmet section, as well as expanding the family sciences classes. She taught in Warren County schools until retiring in 1982.   Helen’s hobbies were gardening and raising flowers, taking great pride in her yard and plantings. She was also an avid reader and an excellent cook. Helen worked with girl scouts, was an active member of the Trinity Presbyterian Church of West Lebanon, the Warren County Cancer Society, she herself being a 27 year cancer survivor, Fountain and Warren Retired Teacher’s Association, and Indiana Retired Teachers, where she held office in their organization. Helen also volunteered her time at the Williamsport Hospital and with reading to the first grade classes of Warren Central Elementary.   Helen loved to travel and had been throughout much of the United States, including Alaska and Hawaii. She also traveled throughout Europe, the Panama Canal, Ireland, Australia, and Mexico. She said that as she traveled she most enjoyed sampling the local foods and seeing local flowers and paintings.   Helen was preceded in death by her husband in 1973, and their oldest son, Timothy Karl Crone in 1986. Surviving are a daughter, Eve C. Reiss (husband, William) of Lafayette, a son, Ben C. Crone (wife, Missy) of rural Warren County, and two grandsons, Karl Thomas Crone and Thomas Benjamin Crone.   The last three years of Helen’s life were happy ones spent in residence at The Springs at Lafayette, an assisted living facility, where she developed a passion for painting. But most of all, Helen enjoyed spending time with her family. She was a blessing to her children, as she taught through example, and lived a life of service, hard work, endurance, love, kindness, and dedication.   Helen would wish memorials go to the Trinity Presbyterian Church in West Lebanon or the Warren County Community Foundation.   She was loved and respected and will be sorely missed. There is an emptiness in the hearts of those she left behind, but gladness that she is now reunited with her son, her husband, her siblings, family and friends. Welcome home, Mom. Hold the door for us, we’ll see you again.   A celebration of Helen’s life will be held at the West Lebanon Trinity Church on Saturday, June 30 from 1:00-2:30 pm with the funeral service beginning at 2:30 pm with Pastor Steve Poston officiating. Interment will follow in the West Lebanon Cemetery.