Connell, Dow & Deysenroth, Inc.Funeral Home: November 2022

Mary J. Hoose

1931 - 2022

PORTLANDVILLE – Mary J. Hoose, of Portlandville, passed away Monday morning, November 21, 2022, at Cooperstown Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing. She was 91.

Born at home in Hartwick on October 27, 1931, Mary was one of five children of J. Paul and Elenor (Bradley) Jones. Raised on her family farm in Hartwick, she graduated from Hartwick High School with the Class of 1949.

At a local dance, Mary met Cecil E. Hoose, a native of Mount Vision, and on August 5, 1951, they were married in a ceremony at the Hartwick Methodist Episcopal Church. Mary then devoted her life to raising and caring for her family and home, as well as helping her husband own and operate Ce-Ran Farm in Mount Vision, which the Hoose family owned for four generations, starting in 1850. She worked with her husband in a typical dairy farmer’s wife role – helping in the barn and feeding the animals, the family and the hired man. They had a milking herd of 80-85 cows, plus an equal number of young stock. For several years they also had chickens, which they purchased as chicks and raised to “broiler” stage. A few years ago, she noted that, “It was a lot of work, but it was a good life and a good place to raise children.” They retired from farming in 1981, and moved to a home on the Susquehanna River in Portlandville in 1992. In retirement, Mary and Cecil travelled to Las Vegas, Missouri and other places visiting relatives. They took two cruises and spent several winters in Florida. They also enjoyed owning several vintage automobiles, including a 1927 REO pickup truck, and were active with the REO Club of America. Following Cecil’s death in 2003, she continued living in Portlandville until moving to The Heritage at The Plains at Parish Homestead in Oneonta in 2018. Since August of this year she has resided at Cooperstown Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing.

Mary was a 73-year dedicated and well-loved member of the Order of the Eastern Star. At the age of 18 she joined Hartwick Chapter No. 617, OES, which met in the former Odd Fellows Hall on South Street in Hartwick. When that Chapter consolidated in 1983 with Otsego Chapter No. 201, OES, in Cooperstown, she joined Laurens-Freedom Chapter No. 518, OES but was always special in the hearts of the members of Otsego-Hartwick-Arbutus Chapter No. 201, OES. She was also a member of the former Mount Vision United Methodist Church, the Susquehanna Valley Senior Citizens, and the Ladies Auxiliary of the Mount Vision Fire Department.

Most especially, Mary loved doing things with her family. She is survived by two children, son Randall “Randy” S. Hoose and wife, Judy of Pierstown, and daughter Priscilla Kaye Osterhoudt and husband, Darrell of Kimberling City, Missouri; five grandchildren, Randall S. Hoose, Jr. and wife, Katherine, Samantha Roman and husband, Ryan, Dana Ledbetter and husband, Joshua, Will Dennis and wife, Ashley Rowley, and Megan Dennis and partner Brandon Shaffner ; six great grandchildren, Margaret and Cecilia Hoose, Erin Roman, Shiloh and Skyler Ledbetter and Riley Dennis; and many nieces and nephews.

She was predeceased by her husband of 52 years, Cecil E. Hoose, who died November 11, 2003; two brothers, Robert D. and Donald A. Jones; and two sisters, Anna Cassada and Catherine L. Garvin.

Friends may call and pay their respects from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m. Saturday, December 3, 2022, at the Connell, Dow & Deysenroth Funeral Home, 82 Chestnut Street, Cooperstown. At 1 p.m., members of Laurens-Freedom Chapter No. 518 and Otsego-Hartwick-Arbutus Chapter No. 201 will conduct the Eastern Star Funeral Service at the funeral home. Immediately following, a Funeral Service will be offered at the Funeral Home with the Rev. James Crouthamel officiating.

Interment will be in Mount Vision Cemetery.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Laurens-Freedom Chapter No. 518, OES in care of Deborah Trask, Worthy Matron, 3369 State Highway 23, West Oneonta, NY 13861, or Otsego-Hartwick-Arbutus Chapter No. 201, OES, in care of Cooperstown Masonic Temple, 77 Main Street, Cooperstown, NY 13326

Arrangements are under the care and guidance of the Connell, Dow & Deysenroth Funeral Home in Cooperstown.

If you would like to send condolences to the family, send an email to Connell, Dow & Deysenroth. We will forward your comments to the family. If you would like to send flowers in memory of the deceased, contact Mohican Flowers at (607) 547-8822, or A Rose is a Rose at (607) 264-3100.

Dwaine R. Sharratt

1955 - 2022

HARTWICK – Dwaine R. Sharratt, who owned and operated Beaver Valley Campground with his wife, Juli, and their children, passed away Saturday morning, November 19, 2022, at his home in the Town of Hartwick from the neurodegenerative disorder Multiple System Atrophy. At the age of 67, he has now completed the final pages of the book of his life.

Born October 6, 1955, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Dwaine was the son of Lloyd Donald Sharratt and Veronica “Ronnie” Louise (Justin) Sharratt.

He was raised in Richfield, Minnesota, and graduated from Richfield High School in 1974. He captained his high school gymnastics team, played football from peewee through high school, and played baseball from tee-ball well into adulthood.

He attended Stout University in Wisconsin and then lived in Mississippi helping with his sister’s young family and farm while his brother-in-law was ill. He then moved to Washington State where he learned the skills of home construction and hobby farming while volunteering with children who had physical and learning disabilities. In Washington, he met his future wife, Juli, who asked him for a ride

to Massachusetts. They arrived there in the summer of 1980 and Dwaine and Juli married in August 1983.

In 1988, they purchased Beaver Valley Campground and developed it into a highly-rated family memory-maker. He took great pleasure in maintaining and developing the campground. In 1991, they started Cooperstown Baseball Camp, an overnight training camp for kids.

Dwaine especially loved taking care of his baseball fields and would often be found prepping the fields with detail and love between games. His fondness for the game, and his encouragement of younger players, was evident when he donated the use of the Little League field at the campground to Cooperstown Youth Baseball when they found themselves with no place to play after their home field was closed.

Each spring for 20 years, Dwaine was the clean-shaven Mr. Sharratt who helped

teach gymnastics at the Clark Sports Center. Each winter he was the full-bearded, wild-haired Dad at Badger Park playing hockey with the kids.

Dwaine was definitely a “road less traveled” kind of person. He was full of antics and imagination and would do just about anything to make someone laugh.

Dwaine was a relentless doer and a heartfelt giver. Whether it was bringing his generator around to local farms and homes when they lost power during the tornado in the 1990s or clearing a friend’s sewer line from the septic tank end, he was not afraid to get dirty or to work long hours.

Above all, Dwaine was in love with his family.

Dwaine is survived by his wife of 39 years, Juli (Kaczynski) of Hartwick, and their four children, Nathan Sharratt and wife, Mona Collentine of Marietta, Georgia, Caley Sharratt and husband, Tristan (Davis-Fralick) Sharratt, Jamie (Sharratt) Dobrovolc and wife, Allison Dobrovolc, and Nicholas Sharratt, all of Hartwick. He leaves three grandchildren, Elsie, Westley and Wren, and his siblings, Michael Sharratt and Kat Kitt, Chip Sharratt and wife, Julie Kelley, Kenneth Sharratt and wife, Christine, Yvonne Stelberg, and brother-in-law, Duane Christopher, all of Minnesota; his best friend since the age of 7, Mitchell Hayle of Vermont; and several nieces and nephews.

He was predeceased by his father, Lloyd, who died in 2001, his mother, Ronnie, who died in 2004, and his sister, Sharon Christopher, who died in 2021.

Family and friends may call and pay their respects from 4-6 p.m. Wednesday, November 30, 2022, at the Connell, Dow & Deysenroth Funeral Home, 82 Chestnut Street, Cooperstown.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be Celebrated at 11 a.m. Thursday, December 1, 2022, at St. Mary’s “Our Lady of the Lake” Roman Catholic Church, 31 Elm Street, Cooperstown, with Fr. Michael Cambi, pastor, officiating.

Immediately following the Mass, there will be a luncheon at The Farmers’s Museum in Cooperstown. All friends and family are invited.

Interment will be at a later date in Lakewood Cemetery, Cooperstown.

In lieu of flowers, expressions of sympathy in the form of memorial donations may be made to a charity of your choice.

Arrangements are under the care and guidance of the Connell, Dow & Deysenroth Funeral Home in Cooperstown.

Lois Ann Garvey

1936 - 2022

SANTA MARIA, CALIFORNIA

Lois Ann Garvey passed away in Santa Maria, California, on November 12, 2022. She was born in Cooperstown, New York, on March 7, 1936, to Neil and Thelma Garvey. In 1945 the family moved to Nevada. She graduated from Mineral County High School in Hawthorn, Nevada, in 1954.

In 1957 Lois moved to Oakland, California, where she went to nursing school and went on to work at Providence Hospital for 37 years. In 1977 she moved to Union City, California, where she lived with her mother until her mother passed away in 2001. Lois was very involved with her church, volunteering at their food bank and also served on her homeowner’s association board of directors. In 2016 she moved to Santa Maria, California, where she lived until her death.

Lois will be interred in Springfield Cemetery in Springfield Center, New York, beside her mother and twin brother, Lawrence, who died in 2003. She is survived by her brother Gordon and his wife Janet of Nipomo, California.

Arrangements are under the care and guidance of the Connell, Dow & Deysenroth Funeral Home in Cooperstown, New York.

James Andrews Melrose Johnston

1953 - 2022

James Andrews Melrose Johnston, Jamie to family and friends, crossed the bar on November 14, 2022, following a prolonged battle with multiple ailments. He was 68.

Born on December 20, 1953, in New Haven, CT, into a family of educators, naturalists, poets, historians, sailors and adventurers, Jamie never missed an opportunity to gleefully embrace novel experiences, such as when, as a toddler, he astonished his mother when she removed his rain hat in a New Haven store only to find a mouse cheerfully nestling in his hair.

Jamie with his pet crow, Poe.

Jamie started out at the Foote School in New Haven, CT, and then graduated from Pine Point School in Stonington, CT, during which time he befriended and was mentored by Roger Tory Peterson. Jamie went on to Berkshire School in Sheffield, MA, and the University of Maine, where he made lifelong friends and graduated with a degree in Wildlife Management. He then joined fellow ornithologist Tom Lovejoy to study birds in Brazil, braved the hostile pecks of ospreys along the coast of Maine as he climbed up to their nests to detect pesticides and band them, and later led “Kids in Creeks” programs in Tennessee and Maryland to promote the health and beauty of their natural habitats. Making friends wherever he went, Jamie and his spirited dog of the moment cheerfully accepted invitations to “camp” on their porches or assault their coffee pots, even when there was no one at home.

Jamie banding an inquisitive osprey.

In between these projects, Jamie taught biology at secondary schools from Connecticut to Texas and enjoyed a stint at The American School in Switzerland (TASIS), which afforded him time for rollicking bicycle rides in the Alps, Great Britain and Europe. On one occasion, Jamie warned Odie, his boisterous student companion, to descend a Scottish mountain with caution as there was a treacherous turn at the bottom. Defying this advice, Odie was found later deeply lodged, but unscathed, in a sheep shed, admitting that ignoring Jamie’s counsel could be perilous to one’s welfare.

Jamie also continued his family fascination with the sea. One of his earliest experiences was on a voyage through the Baltic Sea and the Göta kanal, when his family unwittingly left the little ten-year-old on the dock in Gothenburg Harbor, only to discover his absence when they couldn’t find him at lunchtime. Later in his life he plied the New England and mid-Atlantic coastlines in his traditional wooden sailboats, accompanied by his loyal dog of the day and, often, many friends in the Wooden Boat Forum. No fiberglass for these gifted folks, for whom unforgiving, intensive and never-ending boat repair is an integral aspect of sailing life.

In a word, Jamie was simply multi-dimensional and, like a whack-a-mole, incapable of settling comfortably into any confining niche for very long. He was always devoted to his family, friends and dogs, ever cheerful and gregarious, ever fascinated by family genealogy and lore, and comfortable both among friends and alone, when he reveled in a quiet life interrupted only by the humming of his bees.

Jamie is predeceased by his parents, Waldo C.M. and Elinor Doolittle Johnston. He leaves his siblings, Waldo C.M. Johnston, jr., Elinor J. Vincent and Carol J. Galpin and their spouses, five nieces and nephews and 11 grandnieces and -nephews, all of whom will greatly miss his reflections, advice, arguments, anecdotes, knowledge, support and creativity.

Jamie’s family is especially grateful for the comfort extended to their brother during his final weeks, especially by Robbie Clark, George Holden, Lang Keith, Jane Clark, Chip Northrup, Henry and Rebecca Weil, Harry and Ellen Levine and the Wooden Boat Forum.

There will be a private internment at Lakewood Cemetery in December and a jubilant celebration of Jamie’s life up on the hill next summer. Donations may be made in memory of Jamie to Nova Scotia Heritage Schooner Rescue Society (schoonerrescue.org), where Jamie’s schooner Airlie is undergoing restoration, and the Susquehanna SPCA, 5082-5088 State Highway 28, Cooperstown, NY 13326 (sqspca.org).

Elizabeth Ann Timm

1960 - 2022

VENICE, FL – Elizabeth Ann Timm, 62, mother of four and loving wife to Edward Timm passed away the morning of November 9, 2022.

Elizabeth was born in 1960 in Cooperstown, New York, and grew up alongside her two brothers Michael and David and her loving parents Delores Willsey and the late David Willsey.

Elizabeth dedicated her life to the practice of nursing, where she aided and assisted patients with the extraordinary care and kindness that she shared with all who knew her.

She is survived by her husband, Edward, and four children, Lucas, Matthew, Zachary, and Ian who loved and cherished their mother greatly. Elizabeth recently became a grandmother and enjoyed spending as much time as possible with her close family and friends. She will be remembered by those who knew her as a warm, fun loving, selfless, gentle, and outgoing person whose sense of humor and kindness left a mark on everyone she met. She will be greatly missed and remembered fondly by many.

A service will be offered at 10 a.m. Tuesday, November 22, 2022, at the Connell, Dow & Deysenroth Funeral Home, 82 Chestnut Street, Cooperstown, with Fr. Michael Cambi, pastor of St. Mary’s “Our Lady of the Lake” Roman Catholic Church in Cooperstown officiating. Interment will follow in St. Mary’s Cemetery, Index.

Janet M. Bunt

1949 - 2022

HARTWICK – Janet M. Bunt, who was born in Delaware County and lived her life in Otsego County, passed away Tuesday afternoon, November 8, 2022, at Bassett Medical Center in Cooperstown. She was 73.

Born April 21, 1949, in Walton, Janet was one of six children of Ernest Edwin Sprague and Janet Marion (Sprague) McNorton.

For over thirty years she was employed at Astrocom Electronics, Inc. in Oneonta.

Janet Bunt was a caring woman who loved her children and family. She enjoyed life and the outdoors, often participating in activities such as camping, boating, snowmobiling and gardening. Janet had a particular love of wildflowers. In her spare time, she found entertainment in classic and western movies, especially when the character Josey Wales was on screen. She also perked up whenever a Loretta Lynn song came over the radio.

In her younger years she took pleasure in sewing, which developed into a love of crafts and needlepoint. Her talent in these areas was even used later in her life to lovingly hand-sew clothes for her children. During this same period of her life, you would often find Janet reading love novels after dinner and late into the night. As time went on, if you happened to catch her passing the time, you would see her trying to complete a jigsaw puzzle or solving crossword books.

Janet is survived by her son, Brian K. Michaels and wife, Judith “Judy” of Hardy, Virginia; her daughter, Brenda Silas and husband, Vincent of Mebane, North Carolina; three granddaughters, Brittany Caruso, Candice Caruso and Kayla Michaels; the father of her children, ex-husband Wayne Michaels of Mt. Vision; three sisters, Joyce Budine and husband, Jake of New Berlin, Priscilla “Perk” Sprague of Little River, South Carolina and Donna McCarthy of Oneonta; and many nieces and nephews.

She was predeceased by her husband of 18 years, Arthur J. “Ozzie” Bunt who died June 11, 2009; her father, Ernest Edwin Sprague; her mother, Janet McNorton; a son-in-law, Timothy L. Caruso; and two brothers, Gary “Chico” Sprague and Ernest Sprague.

Janet’s family will receive friends from 4-6 p.m. Saturday, November 19, 2022, at the Connell, Dow & Deysenroth Funeral Home, 82 Chestnut Street, Cooperstown.

The service of committal and interment will be private in Hartwick Cemetery.

Arrangements are under the care and guidance of the Connell, Dow & Deysenroth Funeral Home in Cooperstown.

Georgia Goodspeed

1943 - 2022

COOPERSTOWN - Georgia Goodspeed, a long-time resident of Cooperstown, died early Tuesday morning, November 1, 2022, at Albany Medical Center with the comfort of her loving family by her side and is now with God and her true love, Jerry. She was 78.

Born November 18, 1943, at the Mary Imogene Bassett Hospital in Cooperstown, Georgia was one of three children of the late Elizabeth Downes and George Flint.

In her youth, her father worked on many farms in the area, so Georgia attended several schools throughout Otsego and Delaware Counties. She eventually attended Cooperstown Central School and graduated with the Class of 1962.

That same year, she married Jerry “Boo-Boo” Goodspeed in a ceremony held October 6th in the Cooperstown Methodist Church.

For over twenty years, Georgia was employed as a maid at The Otesaga. She later worked at Bassett Hospital in their housekeeping department.

In her leisure, Georgia enjoyed having a good time with family and friends. An avid fan of NASCAR, she also enjoyed gardening, cooking and baking, embroidery and was well-known for her spaghetti, mac and cheese, baked beans, cookies and pies. Her family looked forward to her making their favorite dessert for their birthdays and her Christmas sweets. She also had a lot of fun decorating her home in Toddsville for the various holidays, most especially Halloween, Christmas and Easter. She enjoyed travelling with Jerry, having their camper in tow, visiting loved ones, attending many races rooting for Mark Martin, and collecting spoons along the way. They enjoyed a trip to Alaska, and visiting Mt. Rushmore and Alcatarz were other travel highlights. Annual Labor Day weekend celebrations at their Ponderosa, where she was the official corn hole tournament scorekeeper chief of chiefs and proudly received the first Boo-Boo Memorial Good Sport Award, will be fondly remembered. She was always the number one fan and supporter for family member’s sports and activities. She loved attending and cheering at quad races and rode in the local parades honoring Jerry and veterans.

She was happiest when surrounded by her family, especially her cherished grandchildren, great grandchildren and grand fur babies. She was a devoted wife and mother, grandmother and “GG.” Her smile and sense of humor will be greatly missed by family and friends. They enjoyed special memories playing board and card games, learning later in life that had followed “GG’s Rules.”

Georgia is survived by three daughters, Betty Steele and husband, Tom, of Hartwick, Sue Gage of Edmeston, and Sherri Goodspeed and fiancé, Gordie Marshall of Fly Creek; three grandchildren, Jimmy Goodspeed, Michael Gage and wife, Michele, and Jessica Talbot and husband, Mikey; and three great grandchildren, Lily Luna Musgrave-Goodspeed, Breona Hope Talbot and Rylan David Talbot; and her faithful and beloved kitty, Cuddles. She is further survived by a brother, Frank Flint.

She was preceded in death by her husband of 51½ years, the love of her life, Jerry; her parents; a sister, Catherine Williams; and precious cat, Midnight.

In accordance with Georgia’s wishes, there will be no visitation or services. She will be privately laid to rest with Jerry in Hartwick Cemetery.

The Goodspeed family respectfully requests that memorial donations be directed to the Susquehanna SPCA, 5082-5088 State Highway 28, Cooperstown, NY 13326.

Arrangements are under the care and guidance of the Connell, Dow & Deysenroth Funeral Home in Cooperstown.