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1979 – 2017
Thirteen elections, all won: The county's own firsts run through one career, and the council that she started on recorded it whole when she died. Beverly Delores (Munger) Crone, after twenty years in bookkeeping and accounting, first sought office in 1979 as a member of the South Bend Common Council; elected at large, she was re-elected in 1983, and left the council to fill a vacancy in the St. Joseph County Auditor's office — becoming the first woman to serve as St. Joseph County Auditor, a post she then won in her own right and held, across two elected terms, for ten years. From the auditor's office she ran for the Board of County Commissioners and won, and with Cindy Bodle became one of the first two women to serve as St. Joseph County Commissioners; she served two terms, one of them as the board's first woman president. The council's resolution of January 2018, passed on her death on 31 December 2017, closes the account with an electorate's arithmetic: thirteen elections she ran in, all thirteen successful.
The county council: The county's legislative body enters this record at the size of one documented presidency: Ideal Baldoni — "Idey," a Bendix worker turned Democratic precinct committeeman — was elected to the St. Joseph County Council and served as its president, as the Community Hall of Fame's roll records. John Voorde's obituary guard of honor named him among the passing generation of the county's servants. A roster of the county council across its history lies beyond the verified record reached for this section and is named as a gap, in the county's own future building.
Sources:
- City of South Bend, Common Council resolution honoring Beverly D. Crone, Bill No. 18-01 (regular meeting, 8 January 2018; city document archive) — the career entire: council 1979 and 1983; first woman county auditor, ten years; first woman commissioner (with Cindy Bodle) and first woman president of the commissioners; thirteen elections, all successful; death 31 December 2017.
- South Bend Community Hall of Fame, Hall of Fame Archives — Ideal Baldoni, St. Joseph County Council member and president.