Whitt Stanley Cruce

Whitt Stanley Cruce was born on November 11th, 1944, in Marion, Kentucky to Mina Evelyn Cruce (née Whitt) and Hubert Ford Cruce. Evelyn worked retail and was a phenomenal cook and storyteller, and Hubert worked in the fluorspar mine and kept an impressive garden. Whitt was the baby of the family. His twin brothers, John and Don, were six years his elder, and his sister, Joan, ten. Don and John were his fierce protectors, his playmates, and at times his tormentors. Joan doted on him and acted as his second mother. He was part of a close-knit, multi-generational family, with beloved grandparents, aunts and uncles standing in for the parents of all the children, and a gaggle of cousins. The woods and creeks were their playgrounds, where they spent a great deal of time running wild, swimming, hunting, and fishing.

When Whitt was ten the fluorspar mine closed and his family relocated to Colorado Springs, Colorado, to work the mine there, then on to Gary, Indiana about a year later. Whitt spent his teenage years in Gary, but Kentucky was never out of his mind or heart, and many weekends he would catch a ride with whichever family member was making the trek home to spend time at Mama Whitt and Granddaddy’s or Mom and Pop Cruce’s.

Whitt graduated from Gary’s Emerson High School in 1962, and soon after started a family with his high-school sweetheart while attending Indiana University Northwest and holding down a job to support his wife, Bridget, and son, Thomas. The juggling of work and school was difficult, and although he had ambitions of becoming a teacher, Whitt left college after three years to work full-time in the brass foundries and steel mills dotting Northwestern Indiana.

In the mid-60s, as the counterculture revolution exploded, Whitt began his musical journey which expanded both his horizons and his world view. Through writing and playing folk music, blues, and ragtime, he cultivated what would become a life-long passion. His marriage dissolved, and he worked hard to help support his son. Whitt became politically and socially conscious, and in opposition to the Vietnam War he applied for and received his conscientious objector status. He moved to a cabin in the woods in Beverly Shores, Indiana, where he spent many hours in the dunes and on the lakeshore of Lake Michigan. He took fishing expeditions with his friends to the Boundary Waters in Minnesota, a place dear to his heart, where he relaxed and rejuvenated. In 1977 he fell in love with a waitress named Becky (Rebecca Beck), who worked in the popular Lake Michigan hotspot, The Red Lantern, while attending Valparaiso University. After she graduated, they married and moved to Bloomington, Indiana, to start a new life. In 1982, they welcomed their daughter, Lana, to the world, and she was and continued to be his golden darling. Whitt went on to start his own construction business, then build the family dream home in the woods at May Creek Farm, where they were surrounded by friends and like-minded individuals who, to this day, celebrate and preserve the land they steward.

They say when one door closes another opens, and after Whitt and Rebecca’s marriage dissolved in the late 1990s, he fell in love with Heather Jones, a fellow May Creeker who shared his passion for creating music. They moved into a 1920s bungalow on West 4th Street, close to downtown Bloomington, which quickly became a hub for music and good times with their friends, as well as Lana and her friends and eventually her family. Whitt and Heather married in 2002 and together they started a musical duo called Biscuits and Gravy and then The Hewitt Stanley Band. They recorded their album Cold December Spell in 2005. Whitt and Heather had a peaceful, easy kind of marriage, never short of love and admiration for each other.

In 2002 Whitt also started a new career as the maintenance man at The Rise, a transitional housing development for survivors of domestic violence and their children. Whitt was skilled at maintenance, and spent time painting, stripping and waxing floors, and fixing about anything that needed it. He was also good at relationships, and the residents and employees loved and trusted him, with his easy smile, sharp sense of humor, and big heart.

After a lifetime of physical labor, Whitt was ready to retire in 2010 and spend his time reading, working crossword puzzles, and hanging out with his bird, Charo. Whitt adored his wife Heather, his daughter Lana, his son-in-law John Soots, and his grandchildren Lucinda and Julian Soots. He loved spending time with them, from family dinners to babysitting to taking the grandkids fishing, he was a devoted husband, father, and grandfather. He was a lifetime lover of wildlife, especially birds. He donated to several nature charities and loved feeding and watching the variety of birds in his yard. Whitt was a fantastic story teller, and for those not lucky enough to hear his funny, poignant, and sometimes shocking stories in person, in his later years he found a wider audience on Facebook, where his friends delighted in his retellings of the tales of his life. To know him was to love him, and Whitt was known and loved by many. He was smart, thoughtful, creative, funny, and kind. We cherished our time with him and will hold him always in our hearts and our memories.

Whitt passed over peacefully in his sleep in the early morning hours of November 18th, 2024, a week after celebrating his 80th birthday. A celebration of life will be held in December. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in his name to Middle Way House.