Carol Jean Kronke

Carol Jean Kronke passed away Monday, June 12, 2023 at Springhill Village Nursing Home, after a brief but debilitating battle with dementia. She is survived by her husband of 61 years, William, her children David, Donna and Dean, her son-in-law Alan McElroy, daughters-in-law Miranda Kronke and Ebbie McInerney and grandson Johnathon.

She was born in Jasper in 1938 to Herbert and Helen Frank, who owned a farm, so Carol learned to drive atop her father’s tractor. She graduated from Deaconess Nursing School in Evansville in 1959, then moved to Indianapolis to work at the Veteran’s Hospital from 1959-1963.

It was while she was in Indianapolis that she met William Kronke while they were both participating in a bowling league.

After marrying in 1960, they moved to Evansville in 1963, where she worked at Turtle Creek Nursing Home until 1971. She became a substitute school nurse for the Evansville Vanderburg School Corporation during the 1971-72 school year, eventually becoming the official full-time school nurse at Fairlawn Elementary School.

After retirement, Carol and William moved to Terre Haute in 2013.

Carol dedicated herself to being a loving and attentive mother and a faithful steward at the churches she attended throughout her life. She once wrote that she considered her greatest spiritual strength to be “care, concern and love for people, especially the less fortunate.”

She was also a sly strategist when playing the game Phase 10.

Visitation will be at the Northside Community United Methodist Church Friday from 1-3 p.m. with a memorial service following at 3 p.m. Carol’s son Dean will preside over the ceremony.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that memorial contributions be made to the Chloe Carroll Fund at the Terre Haute Humane Society or to Northside Community United Methodist Church.