Obituary for Mrs. Barbara A. Krebs
Barbara Ann (Troutman) Krebs, 90, of York, passed away Monday, August 7th, 2023 at home under the care of her devoted family with the assistance of Hospice and Community Care. She was the widow of Lyndon Tuck Krebs with whom she had shared 70 years of marriage upon his death in March of 2022.
Barbara was born December 7th, 1932 in York, the oldest child of the late Roy C. Troutman and Beatrice E. (Sumpman) Troutman. She was a 1950 graduate of York High and remained active with her class until her death.
Barbara did not go to college. Her brother Bill who had a Master’s degree from MIT and a Ph.D in Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics from Cambridge University always said that she should have gone to college instead of him, that she was the smartest one in the family; instead, she was a young wife who became the young mother of four girls born between 1951 and 1957. During the first twenty years of her married life she patiently raised her four girls, tending their major and minor cuts, scrapes, burns and other injuries without the aid of Band-Aids or Bactine. “It will get better before you get married” was her usual refrain. During the same period of time she indulged her love of dogs and swimming. Barbara bought her first dog with her own money in 1941 at the SPCA in York, carrying Irish home on her bicycle; 10 dogs and 76 years later she adopted her final dog, Lola, a 9-yr.old rescue with two repaired ACLs. As she said, “Lola is a good dog for us because she’s half dead like we are!” She was never more comfortable than when she was in the water, and she shared that love of the water as a Red Cross swimming instructor at the old JCC downtown and at the Boys’ Club Pool.
Barbara marched to the beat of her own drummer. She wore blue jeans and sneakers in the 1950s and 60s when the only source for jeans was The Stone Mill Tack Shop. She didn’t carry a purse and she never fussed with her hair. She was not a shopper and was always content with what she had. She once said that the only reason she might have wanted to be rich was so that people would think her eccentric rather than sloppy.
When family circumstances dictated in 1971, Barbara took a job as a supervisor at Danskin, working there for 25 years before retiring. In her retirement she coddled her husband, went to twice-weekly water exercise classes at Country Meadows, volunteered with young students at Dover Elementary School, met regularly with friends both old and new, and enjoyed weekly Saturday morning visits with her children and grandchildren. Daily visits by Claudia and Mattie the long-haired dachshund brightened her life over the last two years. As her physical condition deteriorated, she indulged in her old love of reading, polishing off several hundred books in the last five years of her life.
Even though singing was the very least of her talents, she called her children and grandchildren every year on their birthdays to sing Happy Birthday. Several of them have confessed that they would sometimes let the call go to voicemail so they would have a permanent copy of their Gram singing to them. When she came home from the hospital knowing she had 2 -3 weeks to live, she set about organizing birthday and anniversary cards for her children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren for the last five months of the year “so everything would be equal” for 2023.
Barbara had a phenomenal memory which persisted until the time of her death. She was the mistress of the long narrative poem: Casabianca by Felicia Hemans (“The boy stood on the burning deck…”) and Little Boy Blue by Eugene Field (“The little toy dog is covered with dust…”) were some of her favorites. She perennially quoted a favorite of her beloved Aunt Emma: “There’s so much good in the worst of us and so much bad in the best of us that it ill behooves any of us to talk about the rest of us.” She could also recite The Gettysburg Address and sing various songs in French and Latin dating to her high school language classes.
Barbara was predeceased by her parents; her husband, Lyndon T. Krebs; her brother, William W. Troutman; her sister, Donna Troutman Harbold; her daughter, Nancy Krebs; and her granddaughter, Mary Elizabeth Yinger. She is survived by three daughters: Susan Krebs and her husband David Confer of York; Gale Yinger and her husband Jon of York; and Lynette Krebs and her wife JoAnn Edwards of New Bern, North Carolina; six grandchildren, Allison Yinger (Chris Ness), William Yinger (Virginia), Nathaniel Yinger (Erin Ruane), Kristen Schaible (John), Daniel Confer (Aimee), and Anne Confer Martens (Eric), as well as ten great grandchildren (Alex Schwartz; Levi and Henry Yinger; John, Gretchen, and Lea Schaible; James and Emma Confer; and Andrew and Timothy Confer Martens). She is also survived by a sister-in-law, Suzanne How Troutman of Montville, NJ and a brother-in-law, Leroy E. Krebs of York.
Barbara was the brightest star in our firmament, our grounding and our guide. She always said that her children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren were her legacy and her immortality. She was cherished and adored by us all.
A memorial service will be held on Saturday, November 25th, 2023 at 2 pm. at Kuhner Associates Funeral Directors Inc., 863 South George Street, York. The family invites friends and relatives to join them for a reception and remembrances after the service. As she said during her hospital stay, “Tell people to have a drink on me!”
Barbara requested that memorial contributions be sent to Hospice and Community Care, 235 St. Charles Way, Suite 250, York, PA 17402.