Ann "Cris" Criswell Madden, 81, formerly of Merion Station, a World War II veteran and lecturer on art and travel, died Monday of Alzheimer's disease at St. Martha Manor in Doylestown.

Mrs. Madden grew up in Ohio and Maryland. She earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Maryland, where she also earned a pilot's license.

During World War II, she served with the Women's Air Force Service Pilots, flying new planes from factories to airfields. She met her future husband, Paul Madden, an Army Air Corps captain, at a base in California. They were married in 1945 and had 10 children. In 1966, while they were living in Merion, he died in an automobile crash. Fortunately, their daughter Laura Grant said, her father, who owned an insurance company, had sufficient coverage so that Mrs. Madden did not need to work to support her family.

Mrs. Madden encouraged her children to speak in public, her daughter said, and took her own advice. She developed slide lectures on art appreciation and on her travels, and she included her war experiences in a lecture, "These Magnificent Young Women in Their Flying Machines."

In addition to her daughter, Mrs. Madden is survived by daughters Terri, Rita Wood, Maria Hodel and Paula Cicchinelli; sons Patrick, John, David, Peter and James; 15 grandchildren; and one great-grandchild.