Whanda I. Shedina

KNOX — Whanda Shedina knew hard work not just as a means of getting by, but for its pleasure and beauty.
She was praised for her talent as a seamstress and made for her family tailored clothing that lasted. From her garden, she canned and froze fruits and vegetables to stretch the household income, and she grew flowers to keep bouquets and decorate her home.

Whanda Ida Shedina died on Monday, March 23, 2015, at St. Peter’s Hospital in Albany. She was 91.

She was born in Gallupville and graduated from Schoharie High School in 1942. Shortly after, she married William Shedina, “the love of her life,” her family wrote in a tribute. They were dairy farmers for their married life, which lasted 61 years.

She was the town assessor in Knox for 30 years, her family wrote, after working for a decade in the state’s tax department.

After working with Mr. Shedina, who was once the town tax assessor, Mrs. Shedina was appointed to the role, their daughter, Jo Ann Corigliano, said.

“She loved going to classes and learning the new rules,” Mrs. Corigliano said.

Mrs. Shedina relished the contact she was able to make with people in the town, as an assessor, an elections inspector, or preparing food for dinners at the Gallupville Methodist Church.

She was devoted to the church as a source of social and emotional strength, and she imparted the importance of her faith to her children. As her vision got worse with age, Mrs. Shedina did not bemoan her fate or feel sorry for herself, her daughter recalled.

“She just was able to take what she had in life and make the most of it,” Mrs. Corigliano said. “And I think that was her faith, that made her strong.”

That love of her religion matched her love for her family. Mrs. Shedina hosted many gatherings of her family, with aunts, uncles, and cousins together for a meal on anniversaries, Labor Day, Memorial Day, and Mother’s and Father’s days, along with the other, more common occasions.

“I think very often she was an instigator,” said Mrs. Corigliano. “She was the one who started up a family Fourth of July kind of thing, where she would invite the extended family.”

One Christmas, Mrs. Shedina made smocked dresses for all of the girls in the family. The following December, she gave handmade sweaters to all of the men, each with its own design of ducks or sailboats, requiring her to dangle spools as she knit from them.

She enjoyed the creative, but necessary work of making clothes for her children. And she made hooked rugs, one of which won a prize with its pattern of flowers.

“She’d go to all these garage sales or rummage sale to find a good piece of wool,” her daughter said. “She’d boil all the color out of it and dye the color she needed to hook the pattern.”

Working as a farmwife, Mrs. Shedina enjoyed sewing and cooking — sweet pies especially. She accepted the difficult work that came with the role.

“My grandmother was always a model of someone who was always working, never waiting around for anyone to do something for her,” said Mrs. Corigliano.

Mrs. Shedina was born on June 27, 1923, to Wiley and Lela (née Hotaling) Gage. Her father died when she was 3, and her mother worked in a button factory and a nursing home in Gallupville, Mrs. Corigliano said.

In high school, Mrs. Shedina brought income to the home by working as a nanny.

“I think learning how to deal with hardship at an early age just made her more accepting of life that it required a philosophical approach to it,” said Mrs. Corigliano. “You know, ‘This is the way it is, so we have to work through this.’”

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Mrs. Shedina is survived by her daughter, Jo Ann Corigliano and her husband, James; her son, Wiley Shedina and his wife, Darlene; her sister, Wila Gilman; her brother-in-law Martin Van Voris; her sisters-in-law, Rose Przysiecki and Ruth Przysiecki; her grandchildren, Antoinette Corigliano and her partner, Anthony Kinnaw, Melissa Corigliano, Nicole, Michelle, Justin, Adam, and Kendra, as well as several great-grandchildren.

Calling hours will be held from 5 to 8 p.m. on Thursday, March 26, at Fredendall Funeral Home, 199 Main Street, in Altamont. A funeral service will be held the following day at 11 a.m. at the Gallupville Methodist Church on Factory Street off of Route 443 in Gallupville. Interment will be at the Knox Cemetery in the spring.

Memorial contributions may be made to the Gallupville Methodist Church, Post Office Box 33, Gallupville, NY 12073.

— Marcello Iaia

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