Obituary of Helen B Crawford

MONTICELLO, IOWA

Helen B. Crawford, 101, of Monticello and formerly of Davenport, IA, Andalusia and Matherville, IL, passed away Sunday, March 20, 2022, at the Monticello Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Monticello.

Funeral and Committal services will be held at 10 am Thursday, March 24, 2022, at the chapel of Greenview Memorial Gardens in East Moline, IL.  A Celebration of Life was held on the occasion of Helen’s 101^st birthday.

Helen was born June 6, 1920, in Moline, IL the daughter of George and Helen (Ankney) Draper.  She was the oldest of 6 children.  She married Ralph L. Crawford on February 26, 1942, in Kahoka, MO.  Married 65 years, they raised three children while she worked as a cook in various institutions, banks and restaurants.

Retiring in 1982, they enjoyed their “Andalusia house on the river” sharing their home, yard and great meals with family and friends for 20 years until their home was taken by floods.  After Ralph passed in 2006, Helen had the opportunity to travel to see her sisters, brothers and grandchildren throughout the US.  She especially enjoyed a trip with her son, Jim, and his friends to Punta Cana and a cruise with daughter Carole and her two daughters. 

Everyone that met Helen was touched by her smile, pleasantness and contentment.  Helen shared her gifts of gardening, canning and cooking along with making many quilts to give to family.  She is described as an amazing, wonderful, beautiful, practical and strong woman.  In her words she said she had a “full and wonderful life for a kid of the depression with only an eighth-grade education.”

Left to cherish her memory are her daughter, Carole and son-in-law, Jim Collier, of Monticello, 8 grandchildren and their spouses, 22 great grandchildren, 1 great-great grandchild, 2 sisters-in-law, and many nieces and nephews.  “Grandma Honey” loved her family very much and has left the legacy of a loving family.

She is preceded in death by her husband, 2 sons, Donald (Carol) Crawford and Jim (Holly) Crawford, five siblings: Ruth Pagnillo, Dorothy Graff, Beulah Barnes, George, Bob and Jim Draper.