From: Unknown Newspaper

*Contributed by Gail Hahn Hutchcraft.  Thanks, Gail!

ELLA OPAL BOND HUTCHCRAFT

Ella Opal Bond Hutchcraft, 92, of Gibson City, died at 9:28 a.m. Friday, February 28, 1997, at Heritage Manor Nursing Home, Gibson City. Her funeral will be at 2 p.m. today, Saturday, March 1, at Lamb Funeral Home, Gibson City, the Rev. Paul Thomason officiating.  Burial will be in Drummer Twp Cemetery, Gibson City.  Visitation will be from 1-2 p.m. today at the funeral home and following the funeral at the home of Robert Hutchcraft, 223 N. Church St., Gibson City.  Memorials may be made to the American Heart Association.

Surviving are a son and daughter-in-law, Robert and Gail Hutchcraft, Gibson City; six grandchildren, JoAnne Hutchcraft, Champaign; Troy Hutchcraft, Bison City; Marge Trimble Swarzlose, David Lee Trimble, Dan Trimble and Amy Trimble, all of LeRoy.

Mrs. Hutchcraft was born September 6, 1904, in Aden, a daughter of John E. and Edith Davis Bond.  She married Clyde R. Hutchcraft December 10, 1924 in Aden.  He died May 12, 1959.  She was preceded in death by her parents; three brothers, Arthur, Carl and William Bond, one sister, Agnes Bond Schriefer; one infant sister; one son, Fred Hutchcraft in 1963 and one daughter, Velma Hutchcraft Trimble in 1986.

Mrs. Hutchcraft was a member of First Christian Church of Gibson City.

She was from a pioneer family--one of the earliest settlers in Southern Illinois.  She moved to Central Illinois in 1934, to Gibson City in 1958 and to Heritage Manor Nursing Home in March, 1994.  Records indicate and it is assumed that she was an indirect descendant of the first governor of Illinois, Shadrach Bond.