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- Newspaper Obituary - Monday, November 28, 2005 Watertown Daily Times - Watertown, New York - Bessie A. Guthrie (August 17, 1922 - May 28, 2015) - BESSIE ARLENE RODGERS GUTHRIE, aged 92, passed away Thursday at home in Watkins Glen, NY, where she had lived for seven years. Bessie was born August 17, 1922 in Sandy Creek to Volney and Bertha Roberts Rodgers. Her parents were both deaf, and American Sign Language was a native language for her and her sisters Jennie (Frey) and Hazel (Joyner). Bessie graduated from Sandy Creek High School in 1940, and in 1942 she married William "Bill" Guthrie and moved to Pulaski. When Bill passed away in 2002 they had been married for 60 years. As a young woman, Bessie worked for Mrs. Foster in the house that is now Foster-Hax Funeral Home, and later she worked for several years in the cafeteria at Pulaski Academy and Central School. She was a member of the Park United Methodist Church. She was a loving wife, mother, and grandmother, always sending cards, gifts, and frosted cookies for special occasions. As a home economist, she exemplified the kind of sustainable values that inspire us today - she was thrifty and resourceful and good at reusing household items. She kept a vegetable garden and canned her own produce, and she was an excellent cook. She took great pleasure in playing hymns and forties songs on the piano, and loved jigsaw puzzles and card games. She was also an accomplished knitter, and was still knitting beautiful dishcloths for friends and family up to the end of her life. Bessie is survived by her daughter, Nancy Guthrie Wilder, of Watkins Glen. She is also survived by five grandchildren, Jennifer Guthrie Wilder (Eric Geissinger), Timothy Hartwell Wilder, Joshua Bradford Rossman (Tami), Eric William Rossman (Erika), and Melissa Anne Rossman Cole. She leaves behind eight great-grandchildren, all of whom got the chance to know her. She is preceded in death by her siblings and her husband, and also by her daughter, Janet Irene Guthrie Rossman, who passed away in Pulaski in 2005. A Celebration of Bessie's Life will be held at the Foster-Hax Funeral Home in Pulaski, 52 Park Street, on Thursday, June 4 at 2:00 p.m. Calling hours will immediately precede the service, beginning at 1:00. Burial will take place at the Pulaski Cemetery at a later date. Donations in Bessie's honor can be made to veterans organizations or to the local food banks, to which, in the spirit of her life caring for others, she was a frequent contributor.
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1922 - 2015 (92 years)
d. 18 Aug 2002, Sandy Creek, New York