Florence Carmel Whelan was born on July 19, 1919 in Oughterard Co. Galway.  Carmel was the eighth and youngest child of Jack and Mae Whelan.  She had five sisters – Elsie, Moira, Kathleen, Agnes and Alice, and two brothers – Jack and Paddy.  Carmel came to America with her family in April of 1927, living at 32 Albany St. in Albany, NY.

Carmel graduated from Albany High in 1937.  She worked as a keypunch operator with the D&H Railway and later with “the State”.  Carmel moved on to work with IBM and then I.G.E. where she met Ken Crofut, her future husband.  Carmel and Ken married on March 6th, 1943 in Albany.  They lived in Schenectady, NY then moved to Dumont, NJ where they welcomed their three children, Bryan, Pati and Kathy.

The family relocated to Manchester, NH when Ken took a job with M.K.M. Knitting Mills and Carmel worked as a secretary at Woodmaster Construction Co.  Ken and Carmel later retired to Florida and lived near Carmel’s brother Pat and his wife Mary in Port Richey.

Ken died on Oct. 26th, 1993 and Carmel died on May 30th, 2012.  They are buried in the Florida National Cemetery in Bushnell, FL.