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- Birth: Sep. 7, 1922
Death: Apr. 28, 2015
Martha Elizabeth Davis Hubbard, 92, of Pulaski, died peacefully on April 28 at St. Luke's Health Services in Oswego, with family at her bedside. She was born September 7, 1922 in Bath, New York, the oldest child of Eleanor E. Fisher and David Henry Davis. She lived much of her first 10 years in rural Ohio, then moved with her parents and younger siblings back to the southern tier of New York State. Both her parents were Baptist ministers. Martha Betty's first piano teacher was her mother. Though a year apart in age, a childhood illness caused her to attend the same class as her sister, Ruth Esther. They were respectively valedictorian and salutatorian of the Woodhull High School class of 1941. Inspired by meeting a missionary visiting from Africa, she elected to enter The Baptist Missionary Training School in central Chicago, where she enjoyed her classes in English literature and the history of religion, attending concerts and meeting a diverse population. To her disappointment, lack of funds prevented her from completing college, and she moved with her parents and brother John Brewer Davis to the Baptist Parsonage in Fernwood, New York and got a job at General Electric in Syracuse. During World War II she was an airplane spotter. When her brother went to work on the Hubbard family farm in Fernwood, she met Howard. They were married by her parents in 1945. After living on a farm in Preble, New York for a year, Martha and Howard moved back to Fernwood, where she joined the Methodist Church with her husband, and gave birth to six children. Despite caring for a large family, various cats and dogs and, in the early years, farm animals, she continued to play the piano. All of her children sang and she led the family choir. She was active in church activities, particularly the Crusader Class and UMW Evening Circle. For a time she was substitute organist and choir director of the Fernwood Methodist Church, and she taught Sunday School. When her youngest children were in school, she started work at the Schoeller Paper Company in Pulaski, in quality control. In 1979, Martha and Howard sold their farm in Fernwood. From 1988 they divided their time between Pulaski, where they attended Park United Methodist Church, and Sebring, Florida, where she volunteered in the community and at the church, alongside her husband, sister and brother-in-law. They moved to Bishop's Commons Assisted Living Center in 2012, then St. Luke's nursing home in 2013. Her beloved "valentine" Howard died February 13, 2014. Legally blind, Martha loved hearing her children read to her. She continued to enjoy singing alto in the church services at Bishop's Commons and St. Luke's, as she knew all the hymns by heart. She is survived by her children, Joanne Hubbard Cossa and Kathy A. Hubbard of New York City, Barbara E. Hubbard and David W. Hubbard (Terry) of Pulaski, and Kenneth A. Hubbard, Sr. (Carol) of Fernwood; her grandchildren, Fletcher C. Cossa, Kenneth A. Hubbard, Jr. (Gretchen Miles), Caitlin E. Karver (Mark), Claude W. Hubbard (Lyndall Houppert), Ashley M. Hubbard (Adam Mance) and Colin A. Hubbard (Shawna Hatfield); her great-grandsons, Ethan Facey and Tyler Karver; brother-in-law Harold Hubbard of Pulaski, sister-in-law, Ruth Davis of Baldwinsville and a multitude of loving nieces and nephews. In addition to her husband, Martha was predeceased by her parents; her son, Robert E., and her sister and brother. There will be a memorial service at 11 a.m. Saturday morning, May 30, at the Foster Hax Funeral Home, 52 Park Street, Pulaski. Her ashes will be interred in the South Richland Cemetery in Fernwood. The family will greet callers at 10 a.m. at Foster-Hax, prior to the memorial service. Donations in her name may be made to the Music Program, Park United Methodist Church, 2 Hubble Street, Pulaski, NY 13142.
Published in Syracuse Post Standard from May 1 to May 3, 2015
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1922 - 2015 (92 years)