Chrystal A. Bateman

Chrystal A. Bateman

December 26, 2025

Chrystal Bateman, 72, passed away on Friday, December 26, 2025, at Hammond-Henry Hospital, Geneseo, Illinois.

A funeral service will be at 2 p.m. on Wednesday, January 14, 2026, at Wheelan-Pressly Funeral Home and Crematory, 3030 7th Avenue, Rock Island, Illinois. Visitation will be held one hour prior to the service. Private burial will be in Memorial Park Cemetery, Rock Island. Memorials may be made to the Arc of the Quad Cities Area and St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.

Chrystal was born to John O. (Jack) and Jeanne Bateman on December 11, the third of three children. She matriculated through Rock Island Public Schools, graduated high school from the Villa de Chantal and followed that with several classes in English and Literature at Augustana College. For a time, she worked at Skills, Inc. until she secured a job at the Rock Island County Nursing Home where she worked for seven years. Following that, she spent thirteen years working in the Clock Tower in the mail room at the Rock Island Arsenal where each day she looked forward to seeing her many friends and coworkers. About this time, her health took a turn, and she was no longer able to work. However, this slowed her down but did not stop her.

Her father, John O. (Jack) Bateman was an avid collector of insulators, lighting rod balls, weathervanes and bottles, and he and Chrystal traveled to trade shows, flea markets, and antique shops several times a year and they never returned home empty-handed. While her father talked shop and traded his collections, Chrystal would walk around the venue looking at everything being sold and talking to the vendors until all the collectors knew her as well as they knew her father. She always came away with something she thought her father would like, buy it, and then surprise him with it when they returned home. The two of them spent many years "on the road."

Chrystal was a member of Memorial Heights Methodist Church until it was torn down, and enjoyed the talents of Liberace, Hal Linden, and Reba McEntire.

Time eventually took its toll on her health, and she went to Hillcrest Home and thrived! She liked the other residents, enjoyed talking with people at mealtimes, never missed an activity, and she liked the staff and they liked her. The simplest things made her happy and, because of that, she was the happiest person ever to be known. She didn't have a mean bone in her body.

Chrystal was preceded in death by her maternal great-grandparents; her maternal and paternal grandparents; her parents; and sister, Beverly Jean (succumbed when a toddler).

She is survived by her brother, William, of New York City.

Online condolences may be shared at www.wheelanpressly.com.