Beatrice Crabtree, 93, firstborn of William E. and Mary F. Henderson Olson, was born Jan. 12, 1915, at Lee, Ill. She died March 31, 2008.
She graduated in 1934 from DeKalb High School in DeKalb, Ill., and married Det. J.C. “Tiny” Smith, June 30, 1936. They had three children.
She married William “Ed” Crabtree. They had one daughter, Sherrye.
Mrs. Crabtree was a cook at Fort Leonard Wood during World War II and a linotype operator, cashier and pastor of small country churches.
She was a former resident of Houston, Raymondville, Summersville and Hartshorn and worked for Texas County Extension in the ’70s.
For the last 25 years, she attended Calvary Temple Assembly of God and was a member of the ladies prayer group and Sunday school class. She spent many hours a day in prayer and reading her Bible.
She was preceded in death by her son, Miles; parents and husbands; brother, Merle; infant sister, Lorena; and a grandson.
Surviving are her children, Vivian Stringer of Hartshorn, Kenneth Smith of Marshfield, Sherrye Kuhn of Springfield and Wilma Jackson of Oklahoma City, Okla.; sister, Lydia Wallis of DeKalb, Ill.; a brother, Mervin Olson of Herrin, Ill.; 14 grandchildren and many great- and great-great-grandchildren.
Services were April 2 at the Greenlawn Funeral Home East in Springfield. Burial was April 3 at Antioch Cemetery at Hartshorn.
