A TRAGIC RIDING accident on May 7 of this year claimed the life of Elizabeth Ann Swift Cronin, diplomat, horsewoman, and American hero.

Born in Washington, D.C., Mrs. Cronin grew up in Georgetown and then attended the Madeira School in McLean, Virginia. She graduated from Radcliffe College in 1962.

Mrs. Cronin, then Elizabeth Ann Swift, joined the Department of State the next year and served in various posts here and abroad until 1979.

In that fateful year she was assigned to the American Embassy in Tehran, and was there when it was seized on November 4 by Iranian students and supporters of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

Fifty-two people were taken hostage that day: fifty men and two women. Elizabeth Ann Swift, the senior officer on duty in the Embassy that day, was one of them.

According to Associated Press, New York Times and Washington Post accounts she managed to get a call through to the home of a senior State Department official in McLean Virginia, and stayed on the line with him, reporting events in progress for more than two hours before being forced to surrender.

She would spend 444 days in captivity, refusing to cooperate with her captors even though often under duress.

After her release in 1981, she returned to active service with the State Department, where she served with distinction for the next 14 years.

Three years ago she and her husband, Paul Cronin, moved to Rectortown from Sweet Briar, Virginia, where Mr. Cronin had served as Director of the Sweet Briar College riding program.

Mrs. Cronin, an avid rider, was a member of the Orange County Hunt. She served on the board of Madeira School and was active in the Goose Creek Environmental Organization. She attended Trinity Episcopal Church in Upperville.