Barbara A. (Markel) Crosby

Barbara A. Crosby, 95, of Seneca Falls passed from this life on February 7, 2025 at The Homestead in Penn Yan, NY. Visitation will be on Friday, February 21, 2025 from 5 PM to 7 PM at Doran Funeral Home, 4 East Bayard St, Seneca Falls, NY. A Funeral Mass will be held on Saturday, February 22 at 10 AM at St. Patrick’s Catholic Church, 97 West Bayard St. in Seneca Falls. In lieu of flowers donations in memory may made to the Seneca County House of Concern or St. Francis and St. Clare Parish.

Barbara was born in Seneca Falls to Francis and Florence (McParland) Markel. She was a 1947 graduate of Mynderse Academy in Seneca Falls. After graduation she worked as a bookkeeper at Seneca Knit until her marriage to Airman Francis W. Crosby in 1952. The Air Force placed the young couple at Yaak, Montana where they lived in a drafty log cabin for 2 years while Francis worked as a radio operator on a nearby mountaintop. Barbara, Francis and their boys, Bobby and Tommy, had many military moves with Barbara always busy managing family needs and doing volunteer work. Her travels led her from mountains, swamps and the dry plains of Texas in the U.S. to castles in Europe. She camped out on the hills of Rome and stood in the Coliseum with Francis and the boys.

With her husband’s retirement from the military in 1971, Barbara and the family returned to Seneca Falls where she worked as a buyer at Goulds Pumps for 20 years. For many years she coordinated reunions of her 1947 Mynderse HS class. A determined woman she spent nearly 3 years in night school to become first in her family of origin to earn a college degree. After retirement from Goulds she became a Red Cross volunteer coordinating the Meals on Wheels program in Seneca Falls until age 87.

Barbara enjoyed murder-mystery novels, puzzles, bowling, and was an avid Euchre player. She was a skilled gardener and enjoyed watching and feeding ‘her’ hummingbirds for many years. Her greatest joy though was her family.

A woman of great faith and member of St. Francis and St. Claire Catholic parish she attended daily Mass and prayed the rosary daily. Barbara led a loving and active life filled with faith, family, and friends.

Barbara was preceded in death by her husband of 58 years, Francis, bothers John, Francis, Jr., and Robert (Dorothy). Barbara is survived by: sons Robert (Marian) and Thomas (Cathey); 7 grandchildren, Robert (Leslie), Erin Sullivan, Marigrace (Keith) Miller, Patrick (Ali Stumpf), Michael (Courtney), Thomas Jr. (Wendy), and Meghan (Sam Badawi); 9 great-grandchildren, Mikayla Sullivan; Christopher, Grace, and Joseph Miller; Zaida and Elisa Jane Crosby; Anselm and Eve Crosby; and Cy Crosby; and many nieces and nephews.

A dynamic, active, and loving wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, aunt and friend to many, she will be greatly missed.