I was looking around on the WEB and decided to look up some old friends. Punched up Darden Crawford and up came his Obituarie
WOW !!!!!

Me & Darden lived and grew up together on Woodlawn Blvd in East Peoria. We were BEST friends until about the age of JR High age. I'm a year older than Darden and it sure feels funny reading about your Best Friend who is younger then you passing.

To Many Questions for me yet and to much typing for me. Will just say God Bless him, I'll miss him until we see each other again.....

Would like to hear from his son Troy. 
Please email me at Nailman1769@att.net THANKS 

He was two years older than me just as his father was two years older than my father and, of course, our fathers were brothers.  He was the sweetest boy, so beautiful having the blonde hair and blue eyes and always smiling.  We would play for hours upon hours in Grandma Katie's house.  We would sleep together, tell stories, and laugh causing Grandma to come in a hush us up in her strong but always kindly way. Then we'd just tell the stories softer until the laugh would bring her in again.  Later, in the middle of the night, when Grandma was asleep, Grandpa would come in and wake us up and ask us if we wanted to get some ice cream with him.  This was pure and simple greatness.  The three of us would tippy-toe down the hall past where Grandma was now sleeping, past the kitchen table and into the kitchen where the much taller Grandpa would reach into the freezer to extract this artic metal package with a lid that when slid back had frozen delicious ice cream even with some ice crystals deposited on it.  We each had about 3 or 4 bites-just enough to wet our whistle and make our tummies feel good and it was wash our hands and sneak back down the hall and back to bed.  It was the stuff of which good childhood dreams are forever made.
 
The next day, we'd play the game that Darden had devised where we wrote hint notes providing the seeker with the next clue of where to go next and then so on again.  Sometimes there were nearly 50 notes to the successful find.  We covered every square inch of Grandpa and Grandma's house.  Many years later when Grandma was in her early 90's, she said to me on a visit that she had something for me.   She reached out her aged but loving hand and in it was one of those clue notes that Darden and I had written and hidden, only to remain lost for a half century or longer.
 
Grandma knowing that fresh air and exercise were good for kids, then announced we were going on a drive.  She sat in the driver's seat and Darden and I selected the back so we could sit together.  Darden was a perfect gentleman and I was sort of an ornery tease.  When I'd reach over and touch his knee, he'd return the favor and Grandma would see him but not me.  Eventually she would lose patience and come across the back seat with her larger than life arm to remind us who was actually in charge.  PS. There was never any doubt.  Because I had strategically placed myself in the back seat first, I had the advantage of watching her in the rear-view mirror and of knowing when "the arm" was readying to make its move.  Consequently, Darden always got the arm, but I always ducked just in time.  Darden would always say "How do you always know when to duck?"  I'd always smile at him and say "just lucky I guess."
 
Grandma would sometimes take us out in the country, for example to Delavan (her girlhood home) where she would show Darden and me the buffalo, which was neat because we only saw that on Western movies.  She then would pull the automobile along some dirt country road and we would all pile out to connect with the nature and environment that Grandma loved all her life.  She was a Conservationist long before in became in vogue.  It was pretty much Grandma and Teddy Roosevelt.  Remember when those long summer days seem to stretch to forever with no possible end in sight.  After several hours (well it sure seemed like hours to us) Grandma Katy once again demonstrated she was the perfect Grandma knowing that after we'd walked down what seemed like every country road in Peoria, Tazewell and Woodford counties and gathered all the acorns, walnuts and dried cotton-weed cones that we could possibly carry in our little arms and more, we were ready for a treat.
 
Sometimes the tease would change hands.  On the way back from the country, Grandma would find an ice cream shop and Darden and I would each get a small vanilla cone. Darden would lick his very, very slowly making it last for what seemed like forever.  I would bite mine and it would disappear in short order.  As soon as my last bite was down, Darden would smile broadly, look at me, lick ever so slowly and make yummy sounds like "Ummm, Yummm, this is sooo good."  Grandma would always smile at this.  Years later when Grandma and I would reminisce about the past, she explained to me that she wasn't smiling at the tease, but that it reminded her that that was exactly what her sons Bill (Darden's father) did to Jim (my father) when they were boys about our age.  Guess the more things change, the more the good things just stay the same. 

Later when I was ten, my parents took our family to Door County, Wisconsin to visit my grandparents who had a fantastic mobile home on Weiburg Point near the water and his brother Bill and his family, including my first cousin Darden who were staying in the biggest tent I had ever seen.  Inside were things like furniture and refrigeration units.  Outside of the tent that included multiple colored lights around the fringe, we all sat around and enjoyed the camp fire, ate hot dogs and roasted marshmallows (at least the kids) and told stories and shared memories.  My Dad, Mom, little sister, Uncle, Aunt, Grandpa, Grandma and my cousin Patty and her brother Darden were all there.  Life was very, very good.  

After we ate and sat around for awhile, Darden asked me if I wanted to go across the lake with him.  I had no idea what this meant but it sounded like great fun and readily agreed.  We told everyone that wed be back soon and that we were going down by the lake.  When we got to the water, Darden turned over this boat that he called his dingy and said, Hop in!  I did so and off we went out into the night on the vast open water.  I sat still hoping not to rock the small dingy as Darden rowed quickly and firmly.  Eventually, the campsite got smaller and smaller.  Then the land followed the same pattern.  I looked sideways for the first time and noticed that water was all there was around us in every direction.  All I could hear was the soft wind and the gurgle of the water as the paddles hit them upon each of Dardens strokes.  All I could see was the dark water with the path of a large silvery moon that made its way seemingly all the way from Heaven to our little dingy boat.

All of a sudden, Darden stopped paddling, sat and looked at me and smiled, sort of like he did after Id finished my ice cream cone and he hadnt years ago.  What do you think? he said. Many things raced through my mind.  I wondered how deep the water must be at this point out in the middle of nothing and how many hundreds of times over my head it must be.  I wondered if sharks or other large critters were in this water that could get us.  This was way before the movie, Jaws.  I wondered (assuming I make it back alive which at this point I began to seriously doubt) how much trouble Id be in when my Dad and Mom found out what Id done.  I wondered what wed do if a leak appeared in the dingy boat since I realized I had not checked it out before we departed land, now seemingly thousands of miles away.  All this I thought and did not say.  Darden kept smiling and repeated, Well, what do you think?  I smiled and said Cool attempting to hide all the fears flowing through my head.  

Just then, I felt a thump.  We hit land on the other side which Darden knew was coming up soon as hed done this trip many times in the day and night.  I was so relieved I jumped for joy.  We both ran all around the area which was a desolate (because of the time of night) beach.  We ran through the beach house where folks changed and played in the nearby grilling areas.  We could still smell the charcoal from the food that was cooked there earlier.  Darden asked me this was fun and I honestly agreed it was. Neither of us had any brothers and this must be close to what that was like.  We got back in the boat.  This time Darden let me row which was good because it took my mind off all the other things.  He guided me where to go and I kept thinking that I was lucky to have such a cousin and friend, especially since I started to believe I wasnt going to die on this adventure.  When we arrived back at the campsite, my Dad asked me where Id been and I just pointed (down by) the water.  I think if he would have known, he would have understood because he spent many summers at Door County probably doing the same with Dardens Dad.  On the other hand if my Mom would have known, well not so much.  

Many years later, when my wife Cindy and I had our own son Kristopher and it was time for me to help him take his nap, he would ask Daddy to tell him a story.  I would sometimes pretend to make a book (from the book machine) and read it to him.  He liked that very much but what he liked best was when I didnt have a book;   meaning the book machine wouldnt work.  Id take all the old stories of my own Dad and his parents, brother and sister and the memories of my first cousin Darden and me and convert them into bedtime/nap stories for my son.  We called these the Papa Jimmy stories.  He would delight and giggle and ask many detailed background questions about those stories.  Each one would bring me closer to my son but the memories would also bring me greater appreciation for my family and for those adventure memories especially with my cousin Darden.  

My father (James or Papa Jimmy) always loved his nephew Darden.  He had both the bond of being his Uncle and the bond of the United States Marine Corp.  Dad was always a proud Marine and his brother Bill (Dardens Dad) a proud and decorated flyer with the US Air Force.  When Darden decided to become a Marine, the bond grew even greater between my father and him.   My father went to Heaven in 2003 and I know he was one of the first to greet Darden at the gates with a Marine salute and loving hug.  

When at the end of summer of 2009, Darden, James and I got together for a talk at Darden's house and then at lunch at a nearby restaurant and a picture in his front yard on Finnell Street, we started remembering some of these good times again.  Our great grandparents William James (WJ or Grandpa Bill) and Kathryn Stumbaugh Crawford (Grandma Katy) had 3 children: first son Bill, second son, James and last child, a daughter Sally.  On that day, at that lunch was the only son of first son Bill (Darden), the only son of second son Jim (Russ) and the only child of daughter Sally (James).  We had not all three been together since Grandma Katys funeral.  

As we talked and shared and smiled and laughed, we remembered our parents and their parents, our grandparents.  We all agreed that our parents and grandparents were smiling in Heaven that day that the three of us had finally gotten together to share and enjoy these and other happy memories.  Darden has now, way before his time, joined the family.  These memories will live in me until the day I join them there. Thanks to God for that wonderful day of joyful memories with James, me and Darden.

Gods Speed My Friend; Until I See You Again.


To Dardens family, I am sorry for your loss, may you find comfort at this time.
Darden, I will always remember the time you took me to your company Christmas party many many yrs ago,we had so much fun. You were a good friend. You will never be forgotten. TJ says goodbye ole friend you will be missed. Until we meet again.

I dated Darden in highschool and for several years later.  We even went to one of the highschools reunions.  I miss him.  He was a good friend.

to the family of darden crawford. i knew darden from working with him at fleming potter. he was a good person who knew no stranger. his mother and stepfather were good friends as well. i will forever miss them all. i will see you in heaven someday. rest in peace my friend.  artie fowler,  hanna city il.

Toby,
It's interesting as time passes how much we draw to our past.  Please know you are in my thoughts and prayers during this time.  

My father-My friend-My teacher-My Brother!

Darden is all of these to me and all of you, 
my father: showed me love and honesty.
my friend: was there to party with.
my teacher: taught me what not to do.
my brother: will alway have our back!

Thanks pops
I love you every much
GOD SPEED!!!!!!!

OBITUARY

Sgt. Darden G Crawford

October 16, 1948 – November 4, 2009

Preston-Hanley Funeral Home & Crematory

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