Helen Crowley lit up any room she entered. Never ostentatious, she personified elegance, intelligence, humility, and could command any situation seamlessly. She was a dedicated host, and it was her greatest ambition to keep things light and make the people around her feel good. Beneath her playful demeanor was a commitment to respect everyone and give them a fair chance, regardless of trappings.
Grandma was born Helen Clara Willis on Feb 27, 1916 in Richford, NY (a town with a population of just over 1000 today). She and Grandpa Elmer Crowley met and were married in 1936, he 18 and she 20. They had a wonderful and long marriage, raised 4 children and became pillars of the Binghamton community where they settled. Grandpa ran the dairy company, Crowley Foods, while grandma was a force on the home front. She was integral to grandpa’s success with the company, and loved to brag about him. They were perfect partners for one another and deeply in love through the end.
Helen was stylish and always impeccably put together. Her hair was perfectly in place, clothes always the latest style. Contemporary and fresh, she thrived in the 50’s and 60’s as a model version of that era’s modern woman…witty, skilled, and always well put together. She made it all look easy.
Helen loved to laugh, and it just so happened she had a big, amazing laugh that was as infectious as it was loud. Anyone who knew her remembers the laugh. Grandma worked very hard, rising early to iron clothes and clean, or work in her garden in the cool summer morning hours. Shopping and cooking would follow, as she was committed to homemade meals. She had decades of recipes filed away, and was ready for every occasion.
Outside of the day to day, she always had other projects going on. Gardening was a big one, but she also felt compelled to research family history and complete an extensive genealogy project for our families (which required many hours in libraries and many more on the typewriter). It was a background sound that I still remember…her typing away in the hours between lunch and dinner.
My strongest memories of Grandma were that she was fun – she loved punctuating the day with happy hour! She made sure we always had sunscreen on and didn’t tolerate rough housing on the dock at the lake house. If she burst out of the house and said Tyson Elmer Crowley you knew you had crossed a line.
She kept a candy dish full and on occasion hid $20 bills underneath, as a little spending money. The money was a secret between us, as Grandpa wasn’t supposed to know. She always had cookies ready for us after a long day of boating. She wanted us to hang around only the best people and had a keen eye for troublemakers…she was usually right.
Perhaps the most meaningful memory was when I visited her in the days leading up to my move to the west coast at 23 when she simply said “you will be just fine”. I took it as a vote of confidence in me, and a knowing on her part that things would work out. It was a special moment and meant the most coming from her.
Cheers to the greatness that was Helen.
