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Wisconsin plane crash kills former LeClaire riverboat captain

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By Mary Louise Speer | Wednesday, May 7, 2008 12:25 AM CDT | () comments

Larry Fisher/Quad-City Times Dennis Trone pilots tghe Twilight in this 1999 photo. He died Monday in a plane crash in Wisconsin. Buy this Photo

Former LeClaire riverboat Capt. Dennis Trone, 77, has died while piloting an amateur-built plane that crashed Monday in Wisconsin.

Trone, a resident of Petersburg, Ill., loved flying antique aircraft but most people know him as a riverboat owner and operator.

The cause of the crash near the Brodhead (Wis.) Airport in southwestern Wisconsin remains under investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board, Federal Aviation Administration and local authorities. The Green County coroner pronounced Trone dead at the scene. The sheriff’s department said he was the only one on board.

Trone designed and operated the Victorian-style Twilight riverboat, docked in LeClaire, and the Julia Belle Swain steamboat that operates out of LaCrosse, Wis.

“There’s a great riverboat pilot that’s been lost. He had such a great passion for showing people the river,” said Pam Ellis of the Quad-Cities Convention & Visitors Bureau. “He was always so willing to help when we had the Grand Excursion and the Big River Rendezvous. He just wanted to keep that part of river boating alive, that turn-of-the-century spirit alive.”

Trone, a 1954 graduate of U.S. Naval Academy-Annapolis, Md., and retired Naval officer, designed and built the Julia Belle Swain at Dubuque Boat & Boiler Works, Dubuque, in 1971. He relocated his riverboat business to LeClaire in 1987.

“I’m interested in history and LeClaire has a lot to offer,” Trone said in a 1995 interview. “There is a lot of history to tell in this old river town, and it’s all quite interesting. We try to combine a historic trip with good food and great scenery.”

Running two riverboats was an up-and-down venture as Trone discovered during his early years in LeClaire. He reluctantly sold the Julia Belle after losing business during the Flood of 1993.

“I know it hurt him pretty bad to sell the Julia Belle Swain, but he bucked it up and went on,” longtime employee Harry Alsman of LeClaire said. Trone continued offering two-day excursions on the Twilight.

Todd Bloomingdale, of Sparta, Wis, worked his way up the nautical ladder from deck hand to first mate, on the Twilight. “Dennis Trone’s love was the river and traveling the river. He liked to keep the heritage of it going,” he said.

Trone always listened to people and he always had an answer. Or if he didn’t have an answer, he’d know where to find one, Bloomingdale said. “He could be a stern man, but he was a good man. He’s going to be deeply missed by a lot of people,” he said.

Trone sold River Cruises of Galena, Ill., to Kevin and Carrie Stier in 2006, bringing to an end 50 years of involvement in the riverboat business.

The funeral arrangements are pending. He was married to Elizabeth “Libby” Trone and the couple had five children. Daughters Janet, Lisa and Sophia Trone all live in California; another daughter, Amanda Serra, in Pennsylvania; and son, Robert, in Minnesota.

(This story includes reports from The Associated Press.)

The city desk can be contacted at (563) 383-2245 or newsroom@qctimes.com.