Mrs. Mary Jewell Crouch This is Me

Education

 Web References

1. 1. www.columbiamissourian.com

   www.columbiamissourian.com/obi - [Cached]

   Published on: 9/6/2003   Last Visited: 4/13/2004

   Mary Jewell Hartwig Crouch
   ...
   Life stories: Mary Jewell Hartwig Crouch
   
   posted March 4, 2004
   
   Mary Jewell Hartwig Crouch was born in a Columbia that was entirely different than the one she left behind last week.
   
   Her father, who raised his three children after their mother died, was a German immigrant who came to Columbia to be a bricklayer.
   
   "She used to take him to work in a horse and wagon everyday," said Geri Holiman, her youngest daughter. "She used to race one of the neighbor boys with his horse and wagon." She loved telling that story, Holiman said.
   
   Maybe this experience had something to do with the fact that she was still driving her car at 98.
   
   Mrs. Crouch died Thursday, Feb. 26, 2004, at Boone Hospital Center. She was 102.
   
   She was born May 26, 1901, to Henry and Maud Barnett Hartwig. She lived through almost an entire century in Columbia.
   
   She went to Columbia High School during World War I and married Eugene Nolan Crouch Jr. on Nov. 15, 1920. At that time, Mr. Crouch worked for the postal service and delivered mail in a horse-drawn wagon, while the new Mrs. Crouch was a homemaker.
   
   She raised her children during the Great Depression. During those years she was an excellent seamstress and made all of her children's clothes, Holiman said.
   
   She was a grandmother by the time Elvis Presley hit the pop charts. She didn't like airplanes - her first and only airplane ride was to her grandson Paul's funeral in New York in 1968. She was a great-grandmother before the fall of the Berlin Wall. Her great-great-grandchild was born just before Sept. 11, 2001.
   
   The whole time, she loved being outdoors. She grew up on a farm, and when she was younger she raised chickens and sold hatching eggs to a local hatchery. At one time she had about 200 hens.
   
   But her pride and joy was always her garden, especially her tomatoes. She raised her own tomato plants and built her own fence for her peas to climb. She was still tending to her vegetables at 95.
   
   Thanks to her attention to her health - she never used tobacco or alcohol - Mrs. Crouch was able to live on her own until she was 100.
   
   She also liked to keep up on current events and read the newspaper.
   
   Mrs. Crouch was baptized at the age of 95 as a member of Bethel Baptist Church.
   
   Mrs. Crouch's family stretches across the United States. She is survived by her son, Henry Crouch of Hendersonville, N.C.; two daughters, Billie Jean Peno of Vernon Hills, Ill., and Geri Holiman of Columbia; eight grandchildren; 14 great-grandchildren; and one great-great-grandchild.