Elizabeth Newton Crow, world traveler
Elizabeth Jane Newton was born in Douglas, Wy. Oct. 13, 1919, to the family of a successful oil man. She was raised in Great Falls, Mont. and Bakersfield, Calif. Though a sickly child, she lived a long, robust and remarkable life. She said her mother was strict and her father loving and indulgent. One of her favorite memories is being read to or told stories by her father, safe in his lap. In a time when few women were college educated, Elizabeth graduated with a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in psychology from Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif. A very pretty young woman (and still beautiful when she died), she says she was engaged six times before she chose and married Lloyd T. Crow, also a graduate of Stanford. From that point her life was devoted to her husband, his career, and rearing of her two children who still survive her: Elisabeth Crow Zajic of Lewes and Lloyd A. Crow of Sunnyvale, Calif.
Her mother told her in a letter to Elizabeth at age 18 at Stanford while making arrangements for her to travel home for the holiday by train instead of being picked up at school by her parents, that she was “not to speak to or notice any strangers while traveling, to be sure and bring her jewelry and her fur coat for the holiday parties,” to “get good grades on her exams” and to “remember she was a lady.“
As her mother and doting father wished for her, Mrs. Crow lived the life of a lady. Her husband built oil refineries and developed projects for Bechtel Corporation in Paris, London and Zambia, and for a quarter century she was a leading hostess to important visiting Americans to Paris. Once, as she and her guest party toured the palace at Versailles, she found that a professional guide’s tour group, in the palace at the same time, abandoned their guide to follow her tour since she was so full of information and so articulate. Mrs. Crow became a noted chef of French cuisine as well as a famed hostess to business executives, diplomats and their wives. Some of her stories of life in a diplomatic mansion compound in Zambia, of the native peoples, and of the day-to-day living in Africa are colorful and worthy of a book. Her daughter said of her, “She could - and did - talk to everyone from heads of state to street sweepers, leaving them charmed and delighted.” She was a leader of fashion in Paris for 15 years. Designers of clothes and jewels made pieces just for her. All who know her here in the Lewes area will remember her perfect taste.
Mrs. Crow loved her gardening and her dogs, too, standard poodles and black labs being her favorites. She collected fine arts and antiques, and classical music and opera.
A citizen of Delaware for the past quarter century, Elizabeth Crow was a resident of Hockessin for 17 years, a member of the University and Whist Club in Wilmington and the Hercules Club. She has many old friends in northern Delaware. She has been a resident of Lewes for four years.
Her beloved husband of 67 years, Lloyd “Buzz” Crow, died in Lewes in late 2009. Since he passed, she hoped to join him as soon as possible. She always said, “I don’t want to live 15 minutes longer than Buzz.” Their marriage was a remarkably good one and very affectionate. Their life was full of the best things - travel, luxury, fine cuisine, beautiful clothes, antiques, beautiful houses and friends. She never lost sight of the most important thing, personal dignity and love she showed it to all and was reciprocally loved for it. Nevertheless she was also known for “speaking her mind clearly.“ Through it all she was the refined lady her mother wished her to be. She was a loving wife and mother, and a wonderful friend. She will never be forgotten and always missed by all who were lucky enough to know her.
Arrangements handled by Short Funeral Services, Milton.
