U.S., Obituary Collection, 1930-CurrentClement Leffer
Fmr. tavern owner, 96
Clement "Clem" Leffer, a longtime resident of Monticello, died in Delray Beach, FL on July 19, a month before his 96th birthday.
He was born to Mary Schneider and Nathan Leffer in Brooklyn, NY but moved to Sullivan County at age 15 along with his parents and two siblings.
Clem was a veteran of World War II, having served with distinction in the US Army during the long and hard-fought campaign in Africa. He was well-known as the owner of the legendary Roark's Tavern from 1947-1971 and was assisted in the tavern's restaurant by his wife, the former Madeline McGuigan of Monticello, who predeceased him.
They were the parents of Jeanne-Marie Welch of Jerome, AZ and Martin Leffer of Woodstock. Other survivors include his grandsons, Asa Nathan and Forrest Leffer of Athens,GA; his brother, Robert Leffer of Coconut Creek, FL; his sister, Shirley Coddington of Delray Beach, FL and his former daughter-in-law, Nancy Presley of Albany, GA.
A memorial service was held at the gravesite by members of the immediate family who shared stories and memories of Clem's long and interesting life.
Quintin R. Miller
Ret. Engineer, 88
Quintin R. Miller, a lifetime resident of Callicoon, a retired Engineer for Boeing Aerospace died Tuesday, July 24, 2007 in Callicoon. He was 88.
The son of the late Peter and Antoinette Kellam Miller, he was born on August 18, 1918 in Damascus, Pa.
He was a World War II US Navy veteran.
Survivors include one daughter, Linda Andrews of Amastion, Alabama; his brother, Harold Miller of Callicoon; two sisters, Marion Tyler of Callicoon and Margaret Conklin of Callicoon Center; and several nieces and nephews.
Memorial contributions may be made to the charity of one’s choice.
Arrangements by Stewart-Murphy Funeral Home in Callicoon.
Memorial Service Set for Jack Myers, Ph.D.
A memorial service for Jack Edgar Myers, Ph.D., will be held at 4:30 p.m., Saturday, July 28, at Calkins Union Baptist Church, Calkins Road in Milanville, Pa.
The Rev. William Samford, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Hawley, will officiate. Interment will be held at the convenience of the family at Calkins Union Cemetery, Calkins Road.
Born July 10, 1913, in Boyds Mills, Pennsylvania, he was a son of Highlights Cofounders Garry Cleveland Myers, Ph.D., and Caroline Clark Myers.
Dr. Myers, 93, of Austin, Texas, whose career featured the unusual combination of serving science education and research as well as serving children as science editor of Highlights magazine, died December 28, 2006, in Austin. He served on the University of Texas faculty for 58 years.
Harriet Brainum
Homemaker, 82
Harriet Brainum, a longtime area resident died on Wednesday, October 6, 2004 at the Orange County Residential Care Facility in Goshen. She was 82.
She was born on November 12, 1921 in Brooklyn to Herman and Ethel Grossman. She was a member of the Loch Sheldrake Senior citizens club.
She is survived by her husband of 62 years, Edwin Brainum at home in Loch Sheldrake, two sons, Daniel Brainum and his wife, Mindy of Bridgewater, NJ and Michael Brainum and his wife Sarita of Maryland, her daughter, Diane Goldman of Florida, her six grandchildren, Shari, Bradley, Suzane, Sara, Corey and David, and her seven great-grandchildren and many nieces and nephews.
Graveside funeral services will be held on Sunday, October 10, 2004 at 1:30 p.m. in the Sullivan County Veterans Cemetery on Sunset Lake Dr. in Liberty. Rabbi Andrea Meyers will officiate.
Michael Percaccio
Smallwood Resident, 60
Michael "Mikey" Percaccio, a resident of Smallwood, died Tuesday night at Catskill Regional Medical Center in Harris after a brief illness. The son of the late Michael and Irma Vannucci Percaccio, Michael was born on July 24, 1944 in Brooklyn. He was 60 years old.
Beloved brother of Louis and his wife, Emma Percaccio of Staten Island, and two sisters, Millie and her husband, Warren Aplin of Brooklyn and Linda Frigenti of Smallwood, caregiver. In addition to Michael's siblings, he is also survived by his nieces and nephews and their spouses: Alison Aplin, Lynda Spencer, Michael (Lina) Percaccio, Robert (Nancy) Aplin, and Karen Percaccio; eight great nieces and nephews; an aunt, Felicia Yannotti, an adopted niece, Tracy Novembri and an adopted brother in law, Bill Stevens.
The family will receive friends on Friday, October 9, 2004 at Sabatino Funeral Home, Inc., 323 Avenue, Brooklyn.
A Mass of Christian burial will be celebrated on Saturday, October 10, 2004 at 9:30 a.m. at Saints Simon and Jude Roman Catholic Church on 185 Van Sicklen Street in Brooklyn. Father Timothy Wiggins will officiate. Michael will be laid to rest in the family plot Holy Cross Cemetery, Brooklyn with his parents Michael and Irma and Paternal Grandparents Luis and Carmella.
Michael J. Palka
Ret. Plumber, 88
Michael J. Palka of Jeffersonville, died on Wednesday, October 6, 2004. He was 88.
He was born to Michael and Sophie Saja Palka on July 28, 1916 in Bayonne, NJ. He was married to the late Virginia Hoffmann Palka.
He was a member of St. George's Church in Jeffersonville and was company First Seargent with the 165th AA Gun Batallion D Battery in the South Pacific during WWII.
He is survived by a daughter, Michelle Buddenhagen and her husband, William of Jeffersonville, a son Robert Palka and his wife, Joan of Rawah, NJ, four granddaughters, Donna Buddenhagen Abplanalp and her husband, Troy, Lynn Buddenhagen Tegnander and her husband, Brian, Jamie Palka and Gretchen Palka, four sisters, Jean Cleary, Helen Wines, Bertha Matusiewicz and Laura Esposito, 5 great-grandchildren, Morgan Edwards, Chelsea Abplanalp, Kenneth Abplanalp, Sean Tegnander and Allison Tegnander.
Visitation will be on Friday, October 8, 2004 at the Stewart-Murphy Funeral Home in Jeffersonville from 3 to 5 and 7 to 9 p.m.
A Funeral Mass will be on Saturday, October 9, 2004 at St. George's Church in Jeffersonville at 11 a.m. Father Ignatius Vu will officiate.
Burial will be at the Calvary Cemetery in Youngsville.
Memorial contributions can be made to St. Joseph's School For the Blind, 253 Baldwin Ave, Jersey City, NJ 07306-1388, Hospice of Orange and Sullivan, 800 Stony Brook Court, Newburgh, NY 12550 or the Leukemia Foundation.
Eddie Adams
Photographer, 71
Eddie Adams, long-time area resident of Jeffersonville and founder of the Eddie Adams Workshop died on September 19, 2004. He was 71.
He was born on June 12, 1933 in New Kensington, PA. His father was Edward Thomas Adams.
He was a professional award-winning photographer.
In a family statement it was said, "Alyssa and August Adams express their heartfelt appreciation for everyone's continued support and caring. We love you all."
A memorial service will be held at 10 a.m. on Thursday, October 21, at the Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine on 1047 Amsterdam Avenue at 112th Street in Manhattan.
A private burial for family members was held on Saturday, September 25, at Greenwood Memorial Park in New Kensington, PA. It was his request to return home to New Kensington to be interred next to his father.
In lieu of flowers, the family kindly requests contributions to support the continuation of Barnstorm: the Eddie Adams Workshop. Donations should be made payable to "North Jersey Media Group Foundation" and sent to Jennifer A. Borg, Esq., NJMG Foundation, 150 River St., Hackensack, NJ 07601.
Carl Meltzer
Entertainer, 96
Carl K. Meltzer of New York City and Lauderhill, FL died on September 30, 2004 at 96 in Cambridge, MA after a long and colorful life spent entertaining, inspiring, and amusing virtually everyone he ever met. Mr. Meltzer was born on New York's Lower East Side, the child of Romanian-Jewish immigrant parents. He showed an early enthusiasm for singing and dancing, and as a young child he would perform on street corners for pennies. Before long, accompanied by his father, Louis, he was making the rounds to local cafes and restaurants where he would sing and dance for the patrons. At 9, he played hooky from school to perform songs and acrobatics at a citywide talent show sponsored by the New York Evening World. Despite arriving unaccompanied and a couple of hours late, he was chosen one of the "three most talented children in New York City," and was awarded a scholarship to the Carter-Wardell School for Performing Arts on the Upper East Side.
A few years later, at 15, he left home for good to join "The Flying Nelsons," a family trapeze troupe with which he performed for small and large companies including the Ringling Brothers, Barnum & Bailey Circus. A marvelous storyteller, he recalled the vocal signals the acrobats would use to alert each other before making a flying pass. "One boy would shout in Italian, 'You have an ugly face!' and I would shout back in German, 'You are a nut!' and when we heard each other, we knew it was right." His circus career came to a dramatic and abrupt end in Eau Claire, Wisconsin after he accepted a dare to jump from an 80-foot tower into a small tank of water. "It was stupid. I hit the metal side of the tank and was in the hospital for eight months."
Taking up a less dangerous form of show business in the late '20's and '30's, he traveled the national vaudeville circuit with the stage name of Carl Meldorf as a member of a song and dance troupe called the "Versatile Steppers." He also appeared in a number of Broadway shows and reviews, traveling with many as they toured the country. But as movies replaced vaudeville in popularity, he decided to retire and enter a more conventional line of work. Following the example of a friend who had made a success in business, he opened a hairdressing salon in Middletown, and soon a second one in Liberty. Also, to recapture some of the youth he lost having gone to work at such a young age, he became a regional, and then national leader for the Boy Scouts of America. An Eagle Scout since 1935, and recipient of The Silver Beaver, scouting's highest honor, he led his Sullivan and Orange county troopers on memorable cross-country trips to the southwest, the Caribbean, and even to Europe for scouting Jamborees. He was so entertaining - with his zany humor and bubbly personality - that he became known as the "Alka Seltzer Meltzer!" So enduring was his impact on his troopers that 50 years later, many would come from across the country to celebrate him and to reminisce with stories of both his antics and his devotion at a 1988 testimonial dinner.
He spent much of the early 1950's traveling the globe, meeting and befriending a fascinating coterie of people from the worlds of literature and entertainment. He spent a number of winters on the Island of Majorca, spending time with, among others, writers Robert Graves, Noel Coward, and actor Errol Flynn. He spent his summers in the Catskills, operating Camp Chic-a-lac, a children's summer camp in Youngsville that he established with his brother-in-law, Morris Rattner. The camp pioneered integrating children with serious disabilities into its programs and activities.
In the late 1950's, he married Ruth Sand, a New York City social worker, and settled in Greenwich Village. Mindful of the growing public interest in international travel, he used his own experience as a world traveler and bon vivant to create All Nations Tours, a successful travel agency he located in New York's famed Flatiron Building. The business enabled him and his wife to pursue their passion for travel, sharing many of his favorite destinations with his clients. After he retired, they also lived in Lauderhill, FL and divided their time between their two homes. Mrs. Meltzer died in 1996.
He leaves a number of devoted nieces and nephews, Veronica Ryback of Cambridge, MA and her children Lucas Ryback of Burlington, VT and Dylan and Nancy Jo Ryback of Glendale, AZ; Roger and Lois Rattner of New Hyde Park and their children Stacy Rattner of Castleton-on-Hudson, Judd Rattner, and Rachel Rattner; Stuart Posner of Phoenix, AZ; Jerrold and Ann Mitchell of Wayland, MA; James and Doyen Mitchell of Longmont, CO; and Lucille Green of New York City. A memorial service will be announced later in the year.
Contributions to his memory should be sent to The Boy Scouts of America, Hudson Valley Council, Carl Meltzer Memorial Tribute Fund, PO Box 374, Salisbury Mills, NY 12577.
Rita J. Keator
Ret. Bookkeeper, 83
Rita J. Keator, an eight-year resident of Lenox, Mass., and a retired bookkeeper for Spence Engineering in Walden, died Wednesday, August 4, 2004, at Laurel Lake Center in Lee, Mass. She was 83 years of age.
The widow of Frederick Keator Jr., she was born in Walden on March 21, 1921. Mrs. Keator was a 1939 graduate of Walden High School.
Mrs. Keator enjoyed camping in the Adirondacks and in later years spent summers at her cottage in Fallsburg. She attended St. Anne Church in Lenox , Mass.
She is survived by a grandson, Gregory Greshan of Walden; and a great-grandson. She was predeceased by a daughter, Kathleen Greshan who died in 1993.
Graveside services and burial were held Saturday at the Wallkill Valley Cemetery in Wallkill.
Memorial contributions may be made to St. Anne Church, c/o the Roche Funeral Home, 120 Main St., Lenox, Mass. 01240.
Marion Manzolillo
Homemaker, 78
Marion Manzolillo of Jeffersonville, a homemaker and a lifelong area resident, died Sunday, August 8, 2004, at the Community Medical Center in Scranton, Pa. She was 78 years of age.
The daughter of the late Harry and Lillian Schaefer Layman, she was born July 13, 1926, in the Town of Delaware. She was the widow of Anthony "Don" Manzolillo who died November 7, 1996.
Mrs. Manzolillo was a member of St. George's Church in Jeffersonville.
In a family statement, it was said, "She was a very loving and compassionate daughter, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, sister and friend to all who knew her. She was very creative with ceramics and loved her shells and stone collections."
She is survived by three children and their spouses, Thomas and Linda Manzolillo of Liberty, Teresa and Charles Bendle of Jeffersonville and Tim and Nora Manzolillo of Cochecton; two sisters, Elenor Mall and Helen Schaefer, both of Jeffersonville; eight grandchildren, Cherie DeGraw, Karen Davis, Stacey Bendle, Scott Manzolillo, Jessica Manzolillo, Jackie Manzolillo, Kevin Manzolillo and James Manzolillo; and four great-grandsons, Justin and Jacob DeGraw, and Tyler and Jared Davis.
Friends may call at the Stewart-Murphy Funeral Home in Jeffersonville on Tuesday from 2-4 and 7-9 p.m.
A Funeral Mass will be offered at St. George's Church in Jeffersonville at 11 a.m. on Wednesday with Father Ignatius Vu officiating.
Burial will be made in Calvary Cemetery in Youngsville.
Memorial contributions may be made to the Visiting Nurse Association Hospice of Lackawanna County, 301 Delaware Ave., Olyphant, Pa. 18447 or to St. George's Church, Jeffersonville, N.Y. 12748.
