Lorna Rose Craven

Lorna Rose Craven, age 88, of Newark, DE, passed away on Thursday, February 27, 2020.

Born in northern Indiana in 1931, she was a daughter of the late John and Ama Breseke.  She grew up in Rochester, IN, where she attended high school.  While in school there she was the assistant to the manager of a large lake-front resort, on Lake Manitou.

In 1950, she moved to Indianapolis, IN, to attend, on a scholarship, The John Herron Art School which is now a part of Indiana University.  It was at Herron that she met her future husband, Wayne Craven, also a native of Indiana.  They were married in 1953 in Rochester and that fall moved to Bloomington, IN, to attend Indiana University.  While in Bloomington she worked in the personnel office of WTTV, the local television station, in the early days of television.  Later she served as secretary to the faculty of the Home Economics Department at the University.

Throughout their marriage, she spent much of her free time typing her husband’s term papers and thesis and later his books, often assisting him in his research projects for the latter.  The Cravens especially enjoyed traveling to various parts of the United States and Europe in connection with those projects.  In France, Lorna discovered French cooking and that became one of the passions of her life thereafter; following a summer in Italy, Italian cuisine also became one of her favorite pastimes.

In 1957 she and her husband moved to New York City, where Lorna became assistant to one of the Vice Presidents of General Dynamics in the corporate offices.  That was a very demanding job, but fortunately her office was located on Park Avenue, only two blocks from Bloomingdale’s, to which she often resorted for a breather.  Lorna and Wayne especially reveled in New York’s cultural offerings of music, art and the theatre.

The Cravens next move was to Massachusetts where her husband taught at a woman’s college just south of Boson; there she was again in personnel work, this time at the Texas Instruments offices in North Attleboro.  TI was then involved with the development of the earliest nuclear submarines.

Mr. and Mrs. Craven came to Delaware in the fall of 1960 when he was appointed The Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Assistant Professor of Art History at the University of Delaware.  Lorna, at that time became the assistant manager of the Greenville Country Club where she planned parties, receptions, and weddings and generally assisted the manager in the running of the Club.

The Cravens have lived in Newark for fifty years, during which time Lorna returned to creative painting from time to time.

Mrs. Craven is survived by two sisters – June, who lives near Laporte, IN, and Nancy, who resides in Chicago, IL; her sister-in-law, Rebecca Marino and her husband Frank of Elkhart, IN; and several nieces and nephews.          

A visitation for family and friends will be held from 4 pm until 6 pm on Tuesday, March 3, 2020, at Spicer-Mullikin Funeral Home, 121 West Park Place, Newark, DE.  A second visitation will be held from 10 am until 11 am on Friday, March 6, 2020, at Walley Mills Zimmerman Funeral Home, 700 East Jackson Boulevard, Elkhart, IN, where a funeral service will begin at 11 am.  Interment will follow in St. Vincent De Paul Cemetery, Elkhart, IN.