Shinnecock activist Betty Belle Cromwell dies at 85

Her Shinnecock Indian name was Princess Smiling Face, and family and friends of Betty Belle Cromwell say the name could not have been more apt.

Cromwell, a former member of the Shinnecock Indian Nation's tribal council, a longtime elder council member and a past president of the Shinnecock Cultural Center & Museum, died Sunday of complications from a recently suffered stroke. She was 85.

During a lifetime spent mostly on the Southampton reservation, Cromwell taught young tribal members that optimism in the face of adversity always paid off. She lived that belief with an ever-present smile, said her grandson Eric Douglas. "No matter what the circumstances, she was always smiling," he said.

The daughter of Madison and Pauline Smith Lewis, Cromwell was born on the reservation on Dec. 10, 1924. She grew up there and attended the former Shinnecock school before moving to attend high school in New Rochelle. After graduation, she earned a certificate at the Katharine Gibbs School in Manhattan and worked at Columbia University and for the former New York Telephone as an operator for 18 years. She spent a year at Southampton College.

But her most active roles were as an activist and leader at Shinnecock, where she was known as Miss Bett. For more than a decade, Cromwell served as director for the Shinnecock Community Employment Program, which helped tribal members find jobs at local companies, and in that role her influence carried weight. "She was someone who always passed on wisdom," Douglas said. "She made us very proud of who we are."

Cromwell was also a devoted wife, her family said. When her husband of 41 years, Howard William Cromwell, fell ill last year, requiring nursing-home care, she visited him every day, driving her old van. Howard Cromwell survives his wife.

The Rev. Michael Smith of the Shinnecock Presbyterian Church said staff at the nursing home knew Cromwell well from her daily visits. Howard Cromwell was concerned, Smith said, that she spent so much time caring for him that she often neglected herself.

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Betty Cromwell was active in the church choir and was chair of the church's budget and finance committee. Smith said her presence lightened any mood. "She knew how to laugh and that was contagious," he said. "Her voice and her laughter will be missed."

Randy King, chair of the Shinnecock tribal trustees, called her "one of the pillars of this community."

In addition to her husband and grandson, Cromwell is survived by two other grandchildren, Binh Douglas of Los Angeles and Christina Douglas of Washington, D.C. She was predeceased by her son, LeRoy Douglas, who died in 2005, and a sister, Nancy Woodson.

Viewing is Wednesday from 7 to 9 p.m. at Brockett Funeral Home in Southampton. Services are Thursday at noon at Shinnecock Presbyterian Church, to which the family requests donations be sent in lieu of flowers.