Joseph Jean Croco, 28 Apr 1917 – 08 Nov 2012

CROCO, WHITE, BURNS, COLLINS, WOTOWAY, MICHAELS, HUMBERSON

Posted By: Sandy Ficken (email)
Date: 11/16/2012 at 13:58:14

Joe J. Croco, 95, Middle Amana, died Nov. 8, 2012, at the University of Iowa Hospital, Iowa City. No formal good-byes are planned. Interment will be this coming summer in Cheyenne, Wyo. Your prayers would be most welcome.

Joseph Jean Croco was born April 28, 1917, on the family homestead near Lost Springs, Wyo., the fourth of five children of Arthur C. and Hallie (White) Croco. He graduated from Douglas High School and served in the Civilian Conservation Corps. He later attended the University of Wyoming and majored in economics. Prior to the outbreak of World War II, he hired out on the Union Pacific Railroad. He volunteered for the U.S. Army (Air Corps). He served most of the war on various islands in the Pacific Theater. While in the Pacific, he received minor injuries.

Following the war, he returned to Cheyenne and the UP Railroad, where he became an engineer.

He married Anna Josephine Burns, from Emmetsburg, Iowa, a nurse at the veterans hospital. In 1948 they had a son, Terrance J. Croco, but she died within a month of delivery.

In 1950 he married Agnes Kathryn (Kay) Collins, from Marcus, Iowa, who was a Cheyenne teacher. He retired from the railroad to care for his wife, who died in 1978 after a long illness.

In 1980, he married Agnes Korkow Wotoway, the housekeeper for St. Mary’s rectory, Cheyenne. They continued their retired but active lives in Cheyenne until her death in 2005. For many years, they were involved with the Wyoming Friendship Force.

He had lived in Middle Amana since 2007, first at Lakeview Village and more recently at Colonial Manor.

He led a very active life. His major hobbies included camping, fishing and hunting, shooting and loading, traveling, small and large engine repairing and inventing. He maintained long-term organizational ties with the Elks Club in Laramie; the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the UP Old Timers Club, the Friday Morning UP Retirees Village Inn breakfast group and the Cheyenne Gun and Pistol Club. He once served on the board for Boy Scout Troop 135 in Laramie and became an honorary member of Tau Kappa Epsiolon Social Fraternity at the University of Wyoming. He loved teaching hunter safety courses for the game and fish department.

Croco is survived by one son, TJ and Janet Croco; grandchildren, Matthew and Liz Croco, Kathryn and Joe Michaels, Erin Croco and Alana Croco; great-grandchildren, Samantha, Dillon Joseph and Kathryn Croco, and a few, but greatly treasured, friends and neighbors.

He was preceded in death by his beloved wives; his parents; three sisters, Artha, Ellen Hutchison and Edith Humberson, and one brother, Henry.

The Williamsburg Journal Tribune, Iowa County Obituaries – 15 Nov 2012, p13
Notice only in The Gazette, 13 Nov 2012, 12a