Betty Cronon
Betty Cronon, 87, of Chattanooga, died on Wednesday, August 5, 2015. She was born in Barford-St.Michael, Oxfordshire, England; the daughter of Cyril and Kathleen Tibbetts.
Her grandfather was the village blacksmith. Her father rode a bicycle all of his life; although in his eighties, he would have a fellow patron push his bike home from the pub. As a child, Betty was sent to an orphanage to undergo treatment for a deadly disease. There, the presiding nuns, using stern measures, taught Betty proper Queens English; as opposed to the dialectical. Let it not be overlooked that these dedicated nuns, with the help of their employer, cured Betty of her illness. After two years, Betty returned home- just in time for WWII. Soon enough, she, along with her father, withstood an enemy air bombardment in the family’s chicken coop, one place being as good as another.
At age 15, Betty went to work as a song, stage and dance performer for the Free French Airforce. A number of her teenage friends and romantic interests were members of this valiant aquadron. At times, she was chided by her fellow countrymen for consorting with… ‘those bloody Frenchmen’. Being able and stage-confident, she was chosen to become a touring professional ballroom dancer. Instead, she married an American serviceman; forsaking the French thereby.
Soon after arriving in this country, she went into hysterics. Betty did know what fireflys (lightening bugs) were. She became a US citizen and went to business school. For 17 years, she was the secretary at Valleybrook Golf and Country Club.
Ms. Betty was an excellent singer. According to her son, with the Hi-Fi on and one’s back turned, you could not tell who was singing, Julie Andrews or Ms. Betty.
In 1978, Betty with her husband Roy Cronan, founded the River Inn Restaurant located on Suck Creek Road on the beautiful Tennessee River. The River Inn was affectionately nicknamed the Suck Creek Country Club by it’s patrons.
People from all walks of life, from commercial fishermen to the very well-to-do would all eat under the same roof (or on the same deck). People from all over the world, S. Africa, Germany, India, wherever, including and especially our own regional mountaineers enjoyed some of the best scenery here or anywhere.
To patrons who were D-Day veterans, Ms. Betty was forever the English country lass at the garden gate; each soldier jostling to get in a good word.
At times, Mrs. Betty would cite words from a poem that reflected her ambition and philosophy, like so:
I see from my house by the side of the road
By the side of the highway of life,
The men who press with ardor and hope,
The men who are faint with strife.
But I turn not away from their smiles and tears,
Both parts of an infinite plan-
Let me live in my house by the side of the road,
And be a friend to man.
(Sam Waltee Foss)
In her beloved restaurant this ambition came to pass: as far as ambitions go, there is none higher.
Survivors include her husband, Roy D. Cronon; sons, Stephen Wright of Chattanooga and Roy Cronon II of Ringgold, GA; daughters: Judy (Lamar) Rogers of Hixson, Callie (Ed) LeCompt of Red Bank and Ruthie (Troy) Parrish of Chickamauga, GA; grandchildren, Steve (Debra) Rogers of Chattanooga, Jeff (Kim) Rogers, of Dickenson, TX and Brian Rogers of East Ridge; seven great grandchildren; two great-great grandchildren; niece J. Kathleen Houghton, Banbury, England, niece Mary Ann Flynn of Mississauga, Canada and Tina Tomkew of Toronto, Canada, nieces, Sandy, Mandy and Julie all of England.Nephew, Michael Tomkew of Toronto, Canada.
Funeral services will be 12:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 11, at Lane Funeral Home, Ashland Terrace with Reverend Doug Tate officiating. Interment will follow in Chattanooga National Cemetery. Visitation is 4-8 p.m. on Sunday and Monday at Lane Funeral Home, 601 Ashland Terrace, 877-3524.
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