Published: November 07, 2009 06:14 pm      

RAYMOND ARTHUR ‘SPUD’ CRONKHITE

Raymond Arthur “Spud” Cronkhite, 90, of rural Danville, passed away Friday, Nov. 6, 2009, at the Hoopeston Regional Health Center, where he had been a resident two years.

Raymond was born to Herman and Ula (Dengler) Cronkhite on Feb. 21, 1919, in rural Vermilion County near Rossville. He was the sixth descendent of original Dutch settlers to Dutch New Amsterdam, which in now Manhattan, in the year 1643.

Raymond’s early childhood was a quintessential American story of barefoot summer days, church on Sunday by horse and buggy, farm chores before and after classes in a one-room school and family time lit by oil lamps and warmed by pot belly stoves. It was an agrarian lifestyle practiced for nearly 300 years by his forefathers.

One of his first jobs was a milkman for Meadow Gold Dairy, delivering dairy products to the home in a dairy truck, which you drove while standing, and steered with a vertical lever. When the war started Raymond became a machinist with FMC of Hoopeston, where he met his bride-to-be and lifelong love Ruth Pyle, whom he married Aug. 6, 1944.

After the war, Raymond went to work for Vermilion Service Company, from which he retired after 33 years of providing fuel and feed services to farmers throughout central Vermilion County.

His involvement in his communities included serving on the Henning School Board, president and secretary of the Local Grumble Corner security association and church deacon, with his most recent church home being Danville Alliance Church. He was also a former member of the Bismarck Lions Club.

Survivors include one daughter, Joann Mathews of Covington, Ind., and a son, Glenn and his wife Joyce (Schultz) Cronkhite of rural Danville. His legacy also includes nine grandchildren and 11 great-grand children. Raymond was preceded in death by his wife, Ruth Arlee (Pyle) Cronkhite; his eldest son, Daniel Raymond Cronkhite; sister, Marita Webb; and brother, Eugene Cronkhite.

Funeral services for Mr. Cronkhite will be held at 10 a.m. Friday, Nov. 13, 2009, at the Brown-Alkire Funeral Home, 309 E. Washington St., Hoopeston. Pastor Ken Cameron will officiate. Burial will be at Floral Hill Cemetery in Hoopeston. Visitation will be from 4-7 p.m. Thursday at the funeral home. Memorials may be made to the Danville Alliance Church, 2509 N. Bowman Ave., Danville, IL 61832.