ALTAMONT — Ellen P. Abbruzzese, a founder of the Altamont Orchards, died on Saturday, Jan. 24, 2015. She was 92.

“She was the one who held the farm together. All she did was work, with six boys!” said her eldest son, Joseph Abbruzzese. The Altamont Orchards, and the adjacent Orchard Creek Golf Club, are still family-owned and operated decades later.

Even when she retired and was in her 70s and 80s, her son said, “She rode around the golf course and checked to see what people were doing.”

Mrs. Abbruzzese was born on Saturday, Oct. 14, 1922, in Milton, New York. She was the daughter of James and Mary Dowd Conklin.

She married Joseph Abbruzzese on Nov. 25, 1950.  Together, they purchased and operated the Altamont Orchards.

“Our life revolved around that farm,” her son Joseph Abbruzzese said. “They bought it in 1967.” Before that, the family owned a 24-hour diner in Milton (Ulster Co.), and his father was never home, Abbruzzese said. The diner burned down, but his father's customers were in the apple business and they advised him, Abbruzzese said.

“He knew he wasn't going to work for anybody else. He knew nothing about farming. My mom grew up on a farm,” he said. Mrs. Abbruzzese approved the plan and the family moved to Altamont.

“You see what they built,” he said, comparing the original 20-foot-square fruit stand to the 18,000-square-foot business that includes the stand, greenhouses, and cold storage. In the 1990s, the family constructed the golf course and restaurant.

“They backed us doing that, too,” Mr. Abbruzzese said of his parents. “The apple business wasn't the same. We had to diversify.”

When the farm first opened, Mrs. Abbruzzese “did the books and ran the fruit stand. She raised six of us,” Mr. Abbruzzese said. “My dad was always out in the fields. My mother was at home. We were a big family.”

Mrs. Abbruzzese prepared large breakfasts and lunches daily, he said. “Whoever was there, she fed,” he said. “My mother didn't have hobbies. The kids and work — that was it.”

From the farm to her own funeral, Mrs. Abbruzzese handled all the details, he said.

“She was very organized, very particular, and very strong,” Mr. Abbruzzese said. “She was always a planner. Everything was backed up; you never ran out of anything.”

Before starting her family, Mrs. Abbruzzese received her training to become a registered nurse at Bellevue Hospital in Poughkeepsie.

“She was night supervisor at St. Francis Hospital in Poughkeepsie during World War II,” Mr. Abbruzzese said. “She taught nursing at St. Francis Hospital, also. She had a good life, a full life.”

The last two or three years were hard for Mrs. Abbruzzese, her son said. She was unable to see because of macular degeneration, and she was in a wheelchair, he said.

“She stayed home as long as she could. She wasn't going to live with anybody, that's for damn sure,” Mr. Abbruzzese said, noting that four of her sons live across the street from her. Nurses from Mercy Care came into Mrs. Abbruzzese's home to care for her, and, later, Mrs. Abbruzzese moved to Mercy Care.

“I had lunch with her every day,” Mr. Abbruzzese said. “I fixed her breakfast every morning. She loved it.”

“She adored the grandkids and the great-grandkids,” he said. “We were a big family. She was good to the grandkids.”

Mr. and Mrs. Abbruzzese used to spend winters in Florida, he said.

“All the grandkids went down and visited. It was always an open door for the whole family,” he said.

Mrs. Abbruzzese was a longtime communicant of St. Madeleine Sophie Church in Guilderland.

Father Joseph Girzone, now retired, visited Mrs. Abbruzzese every week and sometimes said a Mass for her, her son said. Fr. Girzone started the Joshua Foundation Inc., an organization dedicated to making Jesus better known throughout the world. Mrs. Abbruzzese asked that memorial contributions be made to the Joshua Foundation.

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Mrs. Abbruzzese is survived by her children, Joseph, and his wife, Dawn, of Guilderland and Venice, Florida; John, and his wife, Donna; Daniel, and his wife, Mary, and James, and his wife, Kelly, all of Altamont; Donald, and his wife, Diane, of Albany; and Thomas, of Orlando, Florida. She was the loving grandmother of Michael, Michelle, Joseph, Anthony, Ellen, Nedra, Keri, Jillian, Danielle, Anna, and Leah. Mrs. Abbruzzese is also survived by 10 great-grandchildren, and several nieces and nephews.

Her husband, Joseph Abbruzzese, died in 1999. Her brother, James Conklin, and his wife, Mary, also died before her.

Calling hours were on Wednesday, Jan. 28, at the DeMarco-Stone Funeral Home at 5216 Western Turnpike, in Guilderland. Services will be held on Thursday, Jan. 29, at 9:15 a.m. at the funeral home, followed at 10 a.m. by a Mass of Christian Burial at the Church of St. Madeleine Sophie, 3500 Carman Road, in Guilderland. The burial will follow in Holy Cross Cemetery, in Rotterdam. Mourners may go online to demarcostonefuneralhome.com.

Memorial contributions may be sent to the Joshua Foundation Inc., 1071 Joshua Lane, Altamont, NY 12009.

— Jo E. Prout