Obituaries Archives — The Altamont Enterprise, August 28, 2008
Katherine “Kay” Beyor (Shufelt)
NEW SCOTLAND — Katherine Beyor, known to her friends and family as Kay, was a bold woman with a legendary sense of humor, said her daughter and son-in-law, Cathy and William McGrath.
She died on Monday, Aug. 18, 2008, in the McGraths’ Guilderland home with Mr. and Mrs. McGrath at her side.
She was born and raised in Brooklyn, the daughter of the late Joseph and Catherine Zengerle.
“She got her first job at the telephone company in Albany when she was just starting out on her own,” said her daughter. She worked there for many years and later became a secretary and payroll clerk for J.C. Klein.
“She was a great mother,” said Mrs. McGrath. “She was always there. She was a single mom. We didn’t have a lot of money but we never knew it. She always made do.”
Mrs. Beyor lived in New Salem and loved the Voorheesville community, said her daughter. Her interests were varied and vital to her, ranging from watching car races to cheering for Tom Jones. “He would just blink and she would applaud,” said Mrs. McGrath who took her mother to a Tom Jones concert the last time he played Albany.
“She loved a good joke, funny greeting cards, browsing through magazines, and most of all never missed a NASCAR event on television,” a friend wrote in a tribute. “Kay bowled in a league for many years, was president and vice president of the New Salem Fire Department Ladies Auxiliary along with the distinction of being a lifetime member.”
“She earned that by being a member for over 25 years,” said her daughter. “She always did the Punkintown Fair and worked the fish fry. She was a little social butterfly.”
“Kay was determined to live life to the fullest and her exercise program at Strong Bones gives proof of that,” wrote her friend. “On a recent birthday, Kay was thrilled to be able to go for a ride in a Hummer.”
She stayed active and involved in her community and was a crossing guard for Voorheesville Elementary School.
Mrs. Beyor was stylish, even decorating her walker with her favorite trinkets. “When you came by her house,” said her daughter, “she always had her makeup on and she always wore matching earrings. She was always put together.”
Mrs. Beyor did not reveal her age and did not want it printed in her obituary, said her daughter. “Even when a doctor asked her age, she would say, ‘Do I have to tell you?’ She always said she was 34,” said her daughter, recalling how her grandson asked Mrs. Beyor her age one birthday and was told 34. The next year, he asked her the same question and was told 34. “Again?” he asked and made the question an annual ritual.
Mr. McGrath summed up his mother-in-law’s personality this way: “She was bold and had a good time. When she walked in a room, everybody knew it. She made everybody laugh.”
“She was a hoot,” said her daughter.
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Katherine (Kay) Beyor is survived by her loving children, Cathy McGrath and her husband, William, and Craig Shufelt; six grandchildren, Cathy Cafarelli and her husband, David, William McGrath, Dawn McGrath, Brian McGrath, Holli Alacanti and her husband, Matthew, and Craig Adam Shufelt; and four great-grandchildren.
A funeral service will be held today, Thursday, at 9:30 a.m. at the New Comer-Cannon Funeral Home at 343 New Karner Road in Colonie. Interment will be at Prospect Hill Cemetery.
Memorial contributions may be made to the New Salem Fire Department or Community Hospice of Albany, 445 New Karner Road, Colonie, NY 12205.
— Melissa Hale-Spencer
Margaret “Ma” Bushnell
BERNE — Margaret Bushnell’s family was her life’s work. In addition to being a loving mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother, “Ma” Bushnell was a nurse, gardener, baker, and seamstress.
“She taught us so many things,” said her daughter, Bernice Edwards.
On Sunday, Aug. 17, 2008, she “went to be with the Lord,” her daughter said. Mrs. Bushnell had been staying at the Hospice Inn at St. Peter’s Hospital.
“Ma” Bushnell, as her family and friends called her, was born on June 18, 1929 in Catskill, N.Y.
“We lost our father when we were very young. She came to Berne to be with him,” Ms. Edwards said.
In her youth, Mrs. Bushnell left the city of Albany to marry and to live in Berne with her late husband, Elbridge Joseph Bushnell. “When she met my father, she lived with her sister in Albany,” Ms. Edwards said of her mother. “My father started renting an apartment there, and, when he met her, he wanted to marry her,” she said.
They were married on Jan. 20, 1951.
“She was a very hard-working mother,” said Ms. Edwards. She remembers when her mother would bring the family to the South Berne Congregational Church. “We were always dressed clean and up early and a part of that, and we always spent Sunday afternoon together.”
Mrs. Bushnell was always singing, telling stories, or reading to her grandkids, Ms. Edwards recalls. “Ma” always put everyone else’s needs before her own, she said.
“She just got such great joy from having any of her children, grandchildren, or great-grandchildren around. It just lit her up like a Christmas tree,” Ms. Edwards said.
“Birthdays always were special – it was your day. She would make homemade cakes, homemade pies, homemade Jell-O and bananas,” she said. “She used to make little blankets out of materials from our own clothes.”
They used to have Italian cookouts with the family, too.
Always generous with her kids, Mrs. Bushnell was a quiet person, never the center of attention. “On the outside, she seemed hard working, and strong, but she had such tender, loving qualities,” Ms. Edwards said of her mother. If you loved her, she would love you right back, she said.
Mrs. Bushnell was always up early to make her home warm and comfortable, working from morning to night, Ms. Edwards said. “She had a tough life. She was a nursing home aid, and she worked at the Institute on Man and Science in Rensselaerville. They were hard jobs — night jobs so she could be with us during the day,” she said. “But she never complained.”
“Ma” Bushnell never complained in the hospital during her final days, either. “She didn’t want us to worry,” said her daughter.
“I would like to say thank you to everyone at St. Peter’s Hospital,” Ms. Edwards added. “She did go through a long illness, and we send our thanks to all the friends who made her stay at the hospital easier.”
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Margaret Bushnell is survived by two sisters, Anna Ciampa and her husband, Tom, and Rose Marie Harris, and one brother, Michael Picardi.
She is also survived by her children: Rose Marie Picardi; Joseph Picardi Jr. and his wife, Delia; Elbridge Bushnell Jr. and his wife, Mary; Michael Bushnell and his fiancée, Mabel; John Bushnell and his wife, Beverly; James Bushnell and his wife, Doraine; Mary Hampton and her husband, Ed; Thomas Bushnell; Robert Lee Bushnell and his wife, Joanne; Harold Bushnell; Bernice Edwards and her fiancé Jakob Westman; Emily Walbroehl; and Helen Geimer and her husband, James.
She is survived, too, by her grandchildren, Stephen, Wendy, Rebecca, Raeleen, Joseph, Sarah, Lisa, Ashley, Christine, Daniel, Christopher, Caitlan, Bradley, Matthew, Melanie, Sabrina, Heather, John, Jessica, Jimmy, Jena, Jackie, Holly, Thomas, Allison, Robert, and Ronnie; 24 great-grandchildren; and many nieces and nephews.
Her children, Margaret Grace Bushnell, Stephen Bushnell, and Betty Bushnell, died before she did, along with one granddaughter, Dana Bushnell, and siblings, Vincent Picardi Jr. and his wife, Kathleen, Anthony Picardi and his wife, Margaret, Joseph Picardi, Josephine Bray and her husband, Frederick, and Jenny Hynes.
The family extends a “special thank-you to Jack, who was always with her.”
The funeral service will be held today (Thursday), Aug. 21 at 2 p.m. at the South Berne Congregational Christian Church. Arrangements were made by Fredendall Funeral Home in Altamont. Interment will be at Fairview Cemetery in Guilderland. Memorial contributions may be made to the South Berne Congregational Christian Church.
— Zach Simeone
Adam J. Jones
VOORHEESVILLE — With a ready smile, Adam J. Jones was often surrounded by friends. He died unexpectedly on Saturday, Aug. 16, 2008, at the age of 26.
Growing up in South Westerlo, Mr. Jones learned to fish and navigate the outdoors. After going to Greenville Elementary School, he and his family moved to Voorheesville in 1990.
“I remember him as a high-spirited young man with a funky Mohawk who loved to play at our pond,” wrote Dorothy Matthews of Mr. Jones, who befriended her son after he moved to the village. “He was outstanding at catching turtles,” she concluded.
“He liked animals,” said his father, August H. Jones. Soon after the family moved into their Salem Hills home, Adam Jones adopted a neighborhood kitten when the winter came and the weather got cold. Cinnamon is now 18 years old and blind in both eyes, said August Jones. His son was also fond of the family’s old dog, Quincy, he said.
Although he had none of his own, Mr. Jones’s father said, “he was very good with his friends’ young children and they enjoyed his company immensely.” Adam Jones would often take them fishing, which was one of his favorite pastimes, his father said. He caught some “nice-size bass,” August Jones remembered of his son, who did mostly catch-and-release fishing.
“He related to people throughout all age groups,” said his long-time neighbor, Michael Burke, “from my grandson who’s 4 years old, to neighbors in the development who are in their 70s.”
After graduating from Clayton A. Bouton High School in 2000, Mr. Jones worked for years at a drycleaner. He had to be to work by 5 a.m., Mr. Burke said, and “the muffler on his car may not have been up to snuff,” so he’d hear the young worker leaving his house in the wee hours, and, “I thought to myself, ‘That takes dedication,’” he said.
When Severson Manor, Troy Miller’s new senior housing complex on the edge of Salem Hills, was being built, Mr. Jones “just walked in and asked Troy for a job,” his father said. “He took great pride in being a part of building Severson Manor,” his family wrote in a tribute.
“He had pride because it gave him, I think, a sense of ownership,” Mr. Burke said, referring to the work Mr. Jones had done. “He gave me a guided tour” of the complex, he said with a note of pride in his own in his voice.
“He enjoyed that kind of thing,” August Jones said of his son’s penchant for carpentry, and he had hoped to start a business of his own. “That was his dream.”
He was a free spirit, his family wrote, who valued being with friends. Mr. Jones joined the Voorheesville Rod & Gun Club where he discovered the trap league, which he took up after he befriended the other members. “He wasn’t too bad,” said August Jones of his son’s inclinations with a shotgun. “Like any sport, you have good days and bad days.”
Mr. Jones also did some hunting and rode dirt bikes and snow mobiles, his father said.
“He threw himself 100 percent into whatever he was engaged in,” Mr. Burke said. “That included work, having fun, making relationships.”
“He was his own man,” concluded his father.
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Mr. Jones is survived by his parents, August H. and Barbara C. Jones, and by his brother, August Jones III. He is also survived by numerous aunts, uncles, and cousins.
His grandparents, August and Beatrice Jones, of Franklin Square, N.Y. and James and Ester Cleveland, of South Westerlo, died before him.
A celebration of his life will be held on Sunday, Sept. 7, 2008 at 2 p.m. at the Voorheesville Rod & Gun Club. Arrangements are by Reilly & Son Funeral Home of Voorheesville and there will be no calling hours.
Memorial contributions may be made to Animal Lovers, Post Office Box 6426 Albany, NY 12206.
— Saranac Hale Spencer
James J. Mason
GUILDERLAND—James J. Mason, a banker and Army veteran, died in his Guilderland home on Monday, Aug. 18, 2008. He was 90.
“Jim’s greatest passion in life was hunting, fishing, and spending time in the outdoors, often venturing to Canada and Scotland in pursuit of his hobby,” his family wrote in a tribute.
Born Jan. 11, 1918, he was raised and educated in Troy. He served in the United States Army Infantry as a sergeant.
He was a graduate of Brown University School of Banking. He retired from Albany Savings Bank as the vice president of marketing.
He was past president of the Optimist International Club, past president of the Albany Chapter Institute of Banking, past president of Investment Club 21, past treasurer of Chatemac Club, and a member of the Colonie Elks.
His wife of 57 years, Ann L. Mason, died before him.
He is survived by his wife of four-and-a-half years, Edith “Suzi” Mason; his children, Kathleen A. Quinn of Schenectady and J. Keith Mason and his wife, Peggy, of Altamont; his grandchildren, Shannon P. Quinn of Maryland, Colleen D. Ryan and her husband, Keith, and their daughter, Kate, of Slingerlands, J. Brent Mason and his wife, Kathy, of Troy, and Bradley A Mason of Saratoga Springs; a step-daughter, Denise Mason, and her husband, Kurt, of Latham; his step-grandchildren, Danielle Zoerner, Rachel Geracitano and her husband, Michael, and their daughter, Gisele.
He is also survived by his siblings, Margaret Patton and her husband, Donald; Emma Ashe; Raymond Mason; and Frank Mason and his wife, Dorothy, all of Troy; a borther-in-law, Earl Willis, of Troy; and several nieces and nephews.
His siblings, Alex Mason, Latisha Willis, and his in-laws, Roy and Margaret Ryan, William Ashe, and Joan Mason, all died before him.
A Requiem Celebration of Eucharist will be held Friday at 11 a.m. at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 21 Hackett Blvd., Albany. Friends and relatives may call at the Fredendall Funeral Home in Altamont today, Thursday, from 5 to 8 p.m. Entombment will be in St. Agnes Cemetery, Menands.
Memorial contributions may be made to Community Hospice of Schenectady, 1411 Union St., Schenectady, NY 12308.
Florence L. Weekly
GUILDERLAND — Florence L. Weekly, whose greatest joy was bringing joy to others, died on Sunday, Aug. 17, 2008 at Our Lady of Mercy Life Center. She was 83.
Growing up in Albany, Mrs. Weekly was the oldest surviving daughter in a family with five children, “So family dinners were always at her house,” said Mrs. Weekly’s daughter, Sue Stark.
Her mother loved to cook, said Ms. Stark. “I kept telling her she could outdo Mrs. Smith’s apple pies,” she said, and she added, “Her apple squares were famous.” A slight woman, always busy about the kitchen, “she stayed skinny,” Ms. Stark said of her mother. “We all got fat. She was the last to sit down to the table.”
Mrs. Weekly began a family of her own after she met the late Claude Weekly when the two were working at the Army depot in the 1940’s — she as a bookkeeper and he as a heavy-equipment operator. Then, after the war, the couple went to Okinawa as civilians for two years where they worked in the same capacities.
“When they got back from Okinawa,” said Ms. Stark, “they both got Harleys.” The pair would go to Laconia, N.H. and take weekend rides, their daughter said, and, later, after she joined the family, “They used to ride me between them on the motorcycle,” she said. When she was a child, Ms. Stark said, her parents sold the bikes and settled down — first in Voorheesville and then, moving in the early 1960’s, in Guilderland, where Mrs. Weekly lived until June of this year.
She worked as a bookkeeper for most of her life, most recently for Chapman Stained Glass, where she worked right up until last year, her daughter said.
“Everyone who ever knew her, loved her,” Ms. Stark said of her mother. “She just had a great heart,” and, she added, an unexpectedly dry sense of humor. Mrs. Weekly was a devoted mother and thoughtful caretaker, looking after her parents in their old age.
“She always put everyone else above herself,” said Ms. Stark. “It made her happy to make other people happy.”
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Mrs. Weekly is survived by her daughter, Sue A. Stark, of Altamont; her siblings Deloris Van Deusen of Guilderland; Audrey Branion of Rensselaer; Midge Stammel of Colonie; and Jim Van Deusen of Schodack; and by many nieces and nephews.
Her husband, Claude E. Weekly died in 1978, and her sister, Joan Nerney and brother, Leonard Van Deusen, also died before her.
Her family extends special thanks to Allie Burke and her family and to Ron and Betsy De Persis “for all of their devotion and special attention.”
A memorial service will be held today, Thursday, at 6 p.m. at the Berean Baptist Church in Guilderland Center and a funeral will be held on Friday at 10 a.m. at the Fredendall Funeral Home in Altamont. Interment will be in Memory’s Garden in Colonie.
Contributions may be made in memory of Florence Weekly to Our Lady of Mercy Life Center Activity Programs, 2 Mercycare Lane, Guilderland, NY 12084 or to the Western Turnpike Rescue Squad, 200 Center Drive, Albany, NY 12203.
— Saranac Hale Spencer