Obituaries Archives — The Altamont Enterprise, November 13, 2008
Mary C. Cameron
WESTERLO — Mary C. Cameron was a vibrant woman who worked as a bank teller and enjoyed sporting events with her late husband, Harold H. Cameron.
She died on Monday, Nov. 3, 2008, at St. Peter’s Hospital in Albany. She was 74.
She was born in Albany, the daughter of the late Albert and Gertrude (Vibbard) Jewell.
She was a longtime employee of the former Banker’s Trust, working in the Albany and Clifton Park branches.
She and her husband were members of the Family Motor Coach Association and traveled to different rallies.
They were also members of the Sports Car Club of America and of the New York State Ice Racing Association. Mrs. Cameron was a secretary and treasurer for NYSIRA and she was the chief registrar for the SCCA.
“She enjoyed arts and crafts…and loved babysitting and loved her pets,” her family wrote in a tribute.
She is survived by her son, Mark E. Cameron, and his wife, Dorian L., of Westerlo; her grandchildren, Harold H. Cameron II and Joshua R. Cameron; her sister-in-law, Ann Jewell; her nephew, Edward Jewell; several cousins and many dear friends.
Funeral services will be today, Nov. 13, at the NewComer-Cannon Funeral Home at 343 New Karner Road in Colonie. Interment will be in the Gerald B. H. Solomon Saratoga National Cemetery. To leave a message for her family online, visit www.NewcomerAlbany.com.
Memorial contributions may be made to The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis, Attention: Director of Annual Giving, Post Office Box 016960 (R48), Miami, FL 33101; or to the Reeve Foundation, 636 Morris Turnpike, Suite 3A, Short Hills, NJ 07078; or to the American Diabetes Association, 7 Washington Square, Albany, NY 12205; or to the American Heart Association, 440 New Karner Road, Albany, NY 12205.
Lillian M. Jones
BERNE — In her 96 years, Lillian M. Jones was more than a witness to change; she was an active participant. She was born on June 12, 1912 and died on Nov. 8, 2008 at her Berne home.
When she was 14, she presented a bouquet of poppies to Charles Lindberg. He was touring the country after his May 1927 flight from New York to Paris that made him world famous.
Her father, Bernard Hempstead, worked at General Electric for a half century, starting at age 13. “Her mother, Ruth, was a going woman,” said Charlotte Jones, Mrs. Jones’s daughter-in-law. “She said, ‘We’ll go see Charles Lindberg when he comes to the Schenectady airport.’ It was May and the poppies were out so she stopped and picked some.
“Gram remembers she had a new white suit dress on. They were standing by the ropes and one of the news people said, ‘Come in; your flowers will be crushed.”
After that, she wrote to Mr. Lindberg, and he answered her letters. Her first of five children, Edwin Howard Jones, was born on June 22, 1930, the same day as Mr. Lindberg’s son.
“And she lived to see a man walk on the moon,” said her great-granddaughter Adrianne Wright.
Mrs. Jones was a standout at a crowded airport or on a country road. The story of how she met her husband, told by Charlotte Jones, attests to this. “He was a truck driver for the county and he used to drive past her home,” she said. “She would stand out by the road and wave.”
She married Howard Jones on July 2, 1929 less than a month after her 17th birthday. They were married for 62 years when Mr. Jones died in February 1992.
Mrs. Jones was an industrious homemaker. She liked soft water, which gets sudsy with soap, and so crossed the street to a stream to carry back water to do laundry on her washboard, said Charlotte Jones. The Joneses didn’t get electricity at their Berne home until 1936, she said.
Mrs. Jones also worked hard at a number of different jobs outside of her home. One of them was delivering mail. “Her son, Roy, my husband, watched her put chains on the car to get up Cole Hill in the winter,” said Charlotte Jones. As the postal service motto has it, neither rain nor hail nor sleet nor snow kept her from her appointed rounds.
She also worked as a waitress at Toole’s in Delmar, at Zwicklbauer’s on Warners Lake, and at the country club in New Scotland, said Mrs. Jones. “And she was a sales lady at Little Folks in Delmar.”
“She was a very busy woman,” said Charlotte Jones.
When Mrs. Jones was 79 and her husband was nearing 90, she drove their station wagon with a 31-foot Airstream Trailer hitched to it all the way to Alabama to visit their daughter, said Charlotte Jones. “People at service stations would say, ‘Look at that little lady driving that big rig,’” she recalled.
She concluded of her mother-in-law, “She was fun-loving and very loving and caring. She never said a bad word about anyone.”
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Lillian M. Jones is survived by her children: Edwin H. Jones and his wife, Carol; Rob B. Jones and his wife, Charlotte; Ruth Thibodeau and her husband, Hillery; Douglas A. Jones; and Marilyn C. Mayers. She is also survived by 13 grandchildren, 12 great-grandchildren, and seven great-great grandchildren.
Her husband, Howard Jones, died before her, as did her parents, Bernard and Ruth Hempstead, and her two brothers, Leo and Arthur.
A funeral service will be held on Friday, Nov. 14, at 1:30 p.m. at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Berne. Calling hours will be before the service from noon to 1:30 p.m. at the church. Interment will be in Woodlawn Cemetery in Berne.
Arrangements are by the Fredendall Funeral Home in Altamont.
Memorial contributions may be made to St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, 1732 Helderberg Trail, Berne NY 12023.
— Melissa Hale-Spencer
George R. Jutzi Jr.
KNOX — George R. Jutzi Jr., the northeast district manager for Spencer Shoes, died Sunday Nov. 9 at the Community Hospice Inn at St. Peter’s Hospital in Albany. He was 73.
Born in Wyoming, Pa. on April 24, 1935, he was the son of the late George and Lena Jutzi. He was raised in Elmira, N.Y. “He especially loved cats and dogs, square dancing and the outdoors,” his family wrote in a tribute. “He had a wonderful sense of humor.”
He is survived by his wife, Genevieve Jutzi; his two sisters, Anna Knapp of Elmira and Lena Brimmer of Lexington N.C.; two brothers, John Jutzi of Florida and Jacob Jutzi of Pittsburgh, Pa.
Services are private at the request of the family. Arrangements are being handled by the Fredendall Funeral Home in Altamont.
Joseph V. Mirabile
SLINGERLANDS — Joseph V. Mirabile was a master electrician and a devoted son, husband, father, and “Papa,” as his grandchildren called him. He died unexpectedly after a short illness on Nov. 5, 2008. He was 68.
“Respected and reliable,” is how his son Timothy Mirabile described him in a tribute. “A simple man subscribing to the simple values of faith and family, Joseph was his family’s foundation,” he wrote.
Born in Albany’s South End, the son of Rose (Sommo) Mirabile and the late Charles T. Mirabile, Mr. Mirabile had a degree in electrical engineering.
“He spent his career instilling his knowledge of the trade in those he worked with,” said the tribute. Mr. Mirabile was a 47-year member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 236. “Rarely did he miss a union meeting or function and rarer was the day he missed work,” said his son.
“Joseph lived for the holidays, especially Christmas and Christmas Eve when his entire family would gather for celebration and dining,” said the tribute. “A special milestone was his 50th wedding anniversary, celebrated in October.”
Ellen (Lohre) Mirabile was his wife and confidant for 50 years.
“Joe was thrilled to be able to travel to Italy to attend the marriage of one of his sons and visit the land he’d always heard so much about,” the tribute said. “Cooking and the love of food was a passion that he and his wife shared and which often ended in spontaneous family dinners. His love of his family will be missed by those of us lucky enough to have shared his love and guidance.”
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Joseph V. Mirabile is survived by his mother, Rose (Sommo) Mirabile; his wife, Ellen (Lohre) Mirabile; and their four children, Timothy Mirabile and his wife, Tammie, Charles Mirabile and his wife, Melissa, Joseph Mirabile, and Michael Mirabile and his wife, Laura; and his grandchildren, Maxwell, Sadey Rose, Casey, Jesse, and Christina.
He is also survived by his brother, Peter, and his wife, Pat, and numerous nieces and nephews; and his special friends Paul and Marty Scher, and his family at M. Scher and Sons Electric, and Bob Iarossi.
His family thanks the many friends who offered strength and support as well as doctors Orris, Garbo, Ben, Kricher, and Gumastop, and gives special thanks to his nurse, Gerry Ann.
A mass of Christian burial was celebrated on Nov. 8 at the Church of St. Catherine of Siena in Albany. Burial was in Calvary Cemetery in Glenmont. Arrangements were made by the Applebee Funeral Home of Delmar.
Memorial contributions may be made to the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America, care of Linda G. Winston, 103 Patroon Drive, #10, Guilderland, NY 12084 for research of a disease that caused him more concern than the one that took his life.
Allyn F. Skinner
BERNE — Allyn F. Skinner, a World War II veteran and United States postal service worker, died on Nov. 7, 2008 at Ellis Hospital in Schenectady. He was 88.
He was born in South Berne on Oct 18, 1920 to the late Howard and Frances Skinner. He served in the Army during World War II, and then worked for the U.S. postal service.
He is survived by his wife, Thema; his son, Allyn R. and his wife, Jennifer, of Glenville; his grandchildren Michael A. Skinner and Nicole Graudons and her husband, Jim; his brother, Kenneth Skinner, of Schoharie; his sister, Verna Brooks of Ohio; and several nieces and nephews.
The funeral service was held Nov. 10 at the Fredendall Funeral Home in Altamont followed by interment in South Berne Cemetery.
Donald W. Youmans
NEW SCOTLAND — Donald W. Youmans was an engineer who worked in large-scale agriculture in Iowa and California after a childhood spent on the family farm in New Scotland.
He died on Oct. 31, 2008 in Grass Valley, Calif. after a long illness. He was 84 years old.
Mr. Youmans was born on July 7, 1924 in New Scotland, and grew up on a dairy farm on Youmans Road. He graduated from high school in 1942. From high school, he immediately joined the Navy, and served as a pilot in the South Pacific during World War II.
Mr. Youmans studied agricultural engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and graduated from Cornell University.
After a stint with John Deere in Iowa, Mr. Youmans moved to California, where he became a chief engineer in large-scale production. He developed a tomato harvester that saved hours of hand labor, according to his brother-in-law, Robert King.
“I rode on it when I was out there. They plant the tomato on an absolutely flat piece of land…as flat as the floor, precisely,” Mr. King said. “The machine comes along, and trucks come behind and pick tomatoes. They can load truckloads of tomatoes per day. This clever brother-in-law created a sensor to tell the ripe tomatoes from the green. [The harvester] pulled tomato plants from the ground, and shook the ripe tomatoes into one chute and the green ones into another. It was a great monster, like a tank.”
Mr. Youmans had his own airplane and, said King, “He was big on fishing.”
Mr. Youmans married Harriet King in 1952. They were married for 56 years and raised two children.
“They were very happy,” Mr. King said. Mrs. Youmans cared for her husband for two years for 12 hours a day, Mr. King said.
“She was so dedicated,” he said.
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Donald W. Youmans is survived by his wife, Harriet Youmans; his son, Jeffrey Youmans, and his wife, Carol, of California; his daughter, Sallie LaPlaca Carmichael, and her husband, Mic, of California; his grandchildren Casey Howard, of Hawaii; Cody LaPlaca and his wife, Lisa, of California; and Jesse LaPlaca, of California; and his brother, Samuel, of Voorheesville. He is also survived by two great-grandchildren.
His brother, Lester, of Indiana, died before him.
— Jo E. Prout