Catherine E. Coleman

1936 -2024

COOPERSTOWN – Catherine E. Coleman, 88, of Cooperstown, entered into eternal rest Tuesday afternoon, August 27, 2024, surrounded by family at her home.  

Cathy was born July 31, 1936, in Mount Vernon, a daughter of George William Herman and Catherine May (Swink) Herman. Raised in Connecticut, she received her education at Lauralton Hall in Milford, and then received an associate’s degree from the University of Bridgeport. For a time she was employed as a laboratory technician with McKesson and Robbins, Inc. in Fairfield. 

On May 30, 1959, Cathy married William Harold Coleman II in a ceremony at St. Theresa’s Church in Trumbull, Connecticut. Bill’s job with the E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. and later Remington Arms Company, Inc. led he and Cathy to live in many places around the country, including Delaware, Connecticut, Tennessee, Pennsylvania and Texas. While in Texas and later Pennsylvania Cathy established and participated in “Guitar Masses” at local churches. During those years their family grew to include four daughters, Catherine (“Kitty”), Susanne, Donna and Linda. The Coleman’s eventually settled in Cooperstown in 1984. 

Cathy was a faithful and devoted communicant of St. Mary’s “Our Lady of the Lake” Roman Catholic Church in Cooperstown. For several years she and her friend, Fran Raeder served Communion to all Catholic patients at Bassett Hospital. 

In addition to her parents, Cathy was preceded in death by a daughter, Linda Claire Coleman who died June 24, 2004, and a son-in-law, Karl Dykstra who died September 10, 2018. 

Cathy is survived by her husband of 65 years, Bill Coleman of Cooperstown, and three daughters, Catherine “Kitty” Dykstra and Susanne Coleman of Cooperstown and Donna Clifford and husband, Robert of Hingham, Massachusetts; eight grandchildren, Karl Dykstra, Jr. and wife, Becky, William Dykstra and wife, Hilari, Julie and Elizabeth “Ellie” Dykstra, George, Coleman and Francis Clifford, and Casey Laufer; 5 great grandchildren; a sister, Joan Petrovich of Monroe, Connecticut; a brother, William Herman and wife, Vikki of Fairfield, Connecticut; and several nieces and nephews. 

A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at 11 a.m. Saturday, August 31, 2024, at St. Mary’s “Our Lady of the Lake” Roman Catholic Church in Cooperstown, with Fr. Michael Cambi, pastor officiating. Immediately following Mass all attending are invited to a reception in the Parish Hall located directly behind the church. 

The Service of Committal and Burial will be held 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 St. Mary’s “Our Lady of the Lake” Roman Catholic Church, 31 Elm 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.

Christopher M. Harloff, Sr.

1959 - 2024

COOPERSTOWN – During the afternoon of Saturday, August 24, 2024, Chris Harloff, Sr. passed from this life peacefully in his sleep at his home in Toddsville. He was 65. 

Christopher Michael Harloff, Sr., was born May 23, 1959, in Washington, D.C., a son of Hollis William Harloff and Sally (Graham) Harloff. 

He was raised in the Washington, D.C. area, where his father served as deputy director of public affairs for NASA. The family spent many summers in Cooperstown, and upon his father’s passing in 1981, they decided to make Cooperstown their home. Chris loved the outdoors, and enjoyed spending time on Otsego Lake, especially fishing off the dock at the family camp. He was hardly ever seen out and about without wearing his trademark hat and aviator sunglasses. 

For the past 37 years, Chris has been employed by Bassett Healthcare Network as an anesthesia technician at Bassett Medical Center in Cooperstown. He enjoyed his work and those he worked with at Bassett. 

Chris is survived by his wife of 30 years, Pam Harloff of Toddsville, and their three children, Lindsay Harloff Edmondson and her husband, Matthew Edmondson of Braintree, Massachusetts, Christopher M. Harloff, Jr. and wife, Alyssa Granato of Westland, Michigan, and William Harloff and Jamie Bruce of Glens Falls. He is further survived by his siblings, Kim C. Harloff of Oneonta, Hollys (“Holly”) Jane Harloff-Ender and husband, David L. Ender of Atlanta, Georgia, and Karen Jane Graham Morosko of Cooperstown, and several nieces and nephews.

Chris was predeceased by his father, Hollis William Harloff who died August 1, 1981, and his mother, Sally G. Harloff (Isabelle Sarah Jane Graham) who died February 14, 2007. 

Friends and colleagues are welcome to pay their respects to the Harloff Family from 3-5 p.m. Saturday afternoon, August 31, 2024, at the Connell, Dow & Deysenroth Funeral Home, 82 Chestnut Street, Cooperstown. 

With respect for his love for all animals, most especially dogs, please consider a donation in memory of Chris 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. 


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.

Marie D. Bello

1925 – 2024

MILFORD – Having lived a long and loving life, Marie D. Bello passed into eternal life peacefully in her sleep at her home in Milford in the early morning hours of Saturday, August 24, 2024. She was 99.  

Born April 24, 1925, in the Village of Herkimer, Marie Dorothy Chirico, daughter of Menotti and Felicia (Torcia) Chirico, was a graduate of Herkimer High School and graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree from the College of St. Rose. 

While working as a research biologist at the Mary Imogene Bassett Hospital in Cooperstown she met Edward Thomas Bello, M.D. who was there as an intern. Upon his return from military service in Korea, they were married August 4, 1951, at St. Anthony’s Church in Herkimer.

Marie and Dr. Bello happily raised seven children: Anne Therese Bello, Dr. Jacqueline Anne Bello (husband Dr. Peter Carmel), Marietta Anne (Bello) Taylor (husband Charles Taylor), Edward Thomas Bello Jr., Susan Anne Bello Pugliese (husband Sergio Pugliese), Peter Joseph Bello, Bianca Anne Bello (Dave West, a good friend to the Bello family), their 7 grandchildren and 6 great grandchildren. Marie and Dr. Bello regularly thanked God for their lives and the children with whom they were blessed.

Marie was preceded in death by her husband, her parents, her sister, Charlotte M. Szarejko and brother, Francis Chirico. 

A Mass of Christian Burial will be offered at 9 a.m. Thursday, August 29, 2024, at the Church of Saints Anthony and Joseph, 229 South Main Street, Herkimer, with Reverend Thomas Babiuch, pastor presiding, assisted by The Most Reverend Manuel L. Cruz, D.D., Titular Bishop of Gaguari and Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Newark, New Jersey. 

The Service of Committal and Burial will follow in Springfield Cemetery in Springfield Center. 

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.

Antoinette Kuzminski

1946 - 2024

COOPERSTOWN — Dr. Antoinette Kuzminski, long-time Bassett physician, passed away on August 22, 2024 after a long struggle with a rare cancer, angiosarcoma.

Known by family and friends as T’nette, she was born as Antoinette Mendlow in New York City in 1946, where she was raised with her siblings on Central Park South. Her father, Leonard Mendlow, was a knitwear manufacturer, and her mother, Cecille Thurlow Mendlow, was a former Hollywood actress. T’nette attended Ecole Francaise, Friends Seminary, and Hunter College High School, before going to Smith College, where she graduated in 1967.

While at Smith she met an Amherst student, Adrian Kuzminski. They fell madly in love and were married in 1967. She and Adrian lived the next few years as graduate students between Rochester and Ithaca New York. T’nette got a master’s degree in American history at the University of Rochester, and studied architectural history at Cornell. She also worked in the City Planning Department of the City of Ithaca. The couple participated actively in the student movement to end the war in Vietnam, and first discovered the joys of country living in the rural Finger Lakes. Their first son, Stefan, was born in 1969.

On the night of the Kent State shootings, T’nette decided to become a doctor. She took her first pre-med courses at Trinity College, Dublin, when Adrian was in residence there in 1970-71 as a Fulbright scholar. In 1971, the family moved from Dublin to Honolulu, where Adrian became a professor at the University of Hawaii. T’nette completed her medical training at the John A. Burns School of Medicine at the University of Hawaii and searched for an internship as a first year medical resident. The couple remembered visiting T’nette’s sister, Stephanie, many years earlier in Cooperstown, when she rotated through Bassett as a medical student. Recalling the charm of the village and the reputation of the hospital, they resolved to return. T’nette won an internship at Bassett in 1977-78. The family then went back to Hawaii for the next two years, where T’nette continued her training at the University of Hawaii Integrated Medical Residency Program. They then returned permanently to Cooperstown in 1980, when T’nette became chief resident in medicine, and subsequently an attending physician in internal medicine. Their second son, Jan, was born in Hawaii in 1978.

T’nette spent the rest of her 37-year career at Bassett, until she retired in 2016. She was a role model to many, as one of the strong pioneering women of her generation to make her way into the then largely male-dominated medical world. Known for her diagnostic skills, forthright manner, and uncompromising attention to detail, she helped countless patients, and greatly enjoyed teaching medical students. She won the Golden Apple award for teaching in 2001. She also engaged in original research on treatment of patients with vitamin B-12 deficiency, helping change medical practice by establishing new guidelines replacing injection therapy with oral therapy.

She had classical tastes. She loved music, especially Bach, had a beautiful singing voice, a talent for drawing, and often played the piano. She also cultivated extensive flower gardens around her home, and she and Adrian loved to buy local art and antiques, especially old paintings. She had a strong civic conscience, and in retirement became active in local planning and land-use issues.

She is survived by her husband, Adrian, her sons Stefan and Jan, her daughter-in-law Melissa Angier, her two grandchildren, Sonya Kuzminski and Rowan Kuzminski, as well as her siblings, Julie Conger, Stephanie Mendlow, and Philip Mendlow, along with numerous nieces and nephews, and her many, many friends.

The family’s deepest gratitude goes to Dr. Anush Patel, and to Maryanne Calkins and the Helios network of hospice care. The family is grateful as well for the assistance of many friends during her illness. Any donations in her memory should be directed to the Friends of Bassett or Helios Care.


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.

Elisabeth B. Giffin

1929 - 2024

COOPERSTOWN – On Monday evening, July 8, 2024, the Village of Cooperstown lost one of its long-time residents, Elisabeth “Betty” Giffin, when she passed into eternal life while en-route from Bassett Medical Center in Cooperstown to Valley Health Services in Herkimer following a brief illness. She was 95.

Many knew Betty by name, perhaps from working with her at Bassett Hospital for many years; she may have been your OR nurse! Perhaps you knew her from worshipping together at church? Many dined with her at the Retired Nurses luncheons, or maybe met her at the Fenimore Quilt Club, or the quilt show.

Maybe you know of Betty from her beautiful flower beds on Fair Street. Do you go to the Farmer’s Market?  Betty always went to the market.  Perhaps you ran into her in the Ingalls’ blueberry fields?  Did she bake you some blueberry muffins? Did you meet her at Pop’s Place (when it was called Pop’s Place), or meet her at “Heartworks” in Fly Creek? 

For some, perhaps the name doesn’t ring a bell, but you probably knew of her, or saw her--if you spent time in the village of Cooperstown. 
 
For many years she walked her dog, her beloved Sheltie, Mica, 3-4 times a day. A lover of people and dogs, she probably stopped you as you passed by to talk. In more recent years Betty continued her walks alone, or with a friend. She may have asked to pet your dog. 
 
However you may have known Betty, all are invited to gather at 12 noon on Sunday, August 25, 2024, at The Columbarium located alongside Fair Street in the Church-yard of The First Presbyterian Church of Cooperstown to place Betty’s cremated remains into her final resting place, not far from her long-time home. In accordance with Betty’s wishes, the service of committal will be brief, and read from the 1956 Presbyterian “Book of Common Worship”. All present are then invited to an ice cream social in memory of Betty in The Chapel or, weather permitting, on the front lawn of the First Presbyterian Church. 
 
Betty was born January 30, 1929, in Baltimore, Maryland, a daughter of Louis and Elisabeth M. (vonBehren) Giffin. During the Depression her father lost his job, but he eventually found a job with Consolidation Coal Company in Van Lear, Kentucky. They lived there for about eight years until her father received a promotion and the family moved to Fairmont, West Virginia. Betty initially wanted to go into biochemical research and attended Fairmont State College. However, she had always wanted to be a nurse, and after graduating from college, she attended Presbyterian Hospital School of Nursing and graduated in 1952 with a Bachelor of Science degree from Columbia University. 

With a desire to leave New York City, Betty started looking around for a hospital in a more rural setting, and learned that the Mary Imogene Bassett Hospital in Cooperstown had a connection with Presbyterian Hospital. So she talked with the Director of Nursing at Bassett, and soon went to work as the Assistant Supervisor in the operating room. She often recalled that at that time, you did whatever needed to be done-it didn’t make a lot of difference what your position was. Everybody worked together. When she first went to work at Bassett, they had 3 ORs. When the new hospital was built they moved to five ORs. Upon her retirement she held the position of Head Nurse of the Operating Rooms at Bassett. 

During her years as a nurse, she witnessed many changes in healthcare, especially with regards to how the nursing profession evolved. From initially being viewed as simple “handmaidens” to the doctors, many nurses during her career, including her good friend, Alberta Bowes, worked hard to make people, especially doctors, realize that nursing was a free and independent profession. 

Once she retired from the hospital, she didn’t know what to do with herself, but soon found work with Harry Tisch at his Snowden Hill Greenhouse. She worked there for five years, during which time she developed her own garden at home with plants Mr. Tisch gave to her.  

Although she resided for many years in her home on Fair Street, Betty first lived in an apartment in one of the houses on Church Street located in the area now used as a parking lot behind the Baseball Hall of Fame. She later rented an apartment on Elm Street, and then decided to purchase a mobile home which she had placed on a lot in Hartwick Seminary. A few years later, a house on Fair Street owned by Ralph and Ruth DeSena came on the market and she purchased it. As Betty once noted, she could fall out of bed and fall into work with ease, and it made responding to late night emergency calls a snap. 

Soon after she moved to Cooperstown, she started attending The First Presbyterian Church of Cooperstown, and joined the church in 1958. In 1969, she became the second female Elder in the church, the late Kitty Ketchum being the first. In 1992, she joined the Trustees, which later became the Buildings and Grounds Team, and was a dedicated committee member who was always very concerned with the upkeep and maintenance of the church’s buildings. She also served for a time with the Service Guild, and was president of the Women’s Fellowship sewing group for many years. 

A good soul, Betty will be missed, both for her forthright and direct nature (she was never afraid to tell someone exactly what she thought) and her steadfast devotion to her church and community. She appreciated small town life, but often lamented the changes she witnessed through the years to the Village, as well as to Bassett as it grew in size and scope. Still, she was happy, in her own Betty kind of way, with the life she led in Cooperstown. 

With respect for Betty’s sincere and long-term interest in and commitment to the buildings of the First Presbyterian Church of Cooperstown and realizing that she and the floor of The Chapel were contemporaries, a fitting tribute to her memory would be a donation to the First Presbyterian Church of Cooperstown for a new Chapel floor. If you desire, a check made payable to The First Presbyterian Church of Cooperstown with a note in the memo line for The New Chapel Floor would honor her service. Checks may be mailed to The First Presbyterian Church of Cooperstown, 25 Church Street, Cooperstown, NY  13326.

Alternative ways to honor Betty’s memory would be a donation to the Bassett Healthcare Network Nightingale Fund for Nursing Excellence and Education, c/o Friends of Bassett, 1 Atwell Road, Cooperstown, NY  13326 or the Susquehanna SPCA, 5082-5088 State Highway 28, Cooperstown, NY  13326.

Arrangements are entrusted to Peter A. Deysenroth and 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.

Lisa Hafkin

1966 - 2024

COOPERSTOWN – Lisa Hafkin, a native of Long Island who in more recent years made her home with her family in Cooperstown, passed away unexpectedly Wednesday evening, August 7, 2024, at St. Francis Hospital & Heart Center in Roslyn on Long Island. She was 58. 

Born June 22, 1966, in the Village of Freeport in the Town of Hempstead on the South Shore of Long Island, Lisa became a daughter of Pasquale and Gloria (Cappellano) Boccio. Lisa grew up in Wantagh and graduated from General Douglas MacArthur High School in 1984. 

She married David Hafkin March 4, 1990, in Huntington Station on Long Island. 

Since moving to Cooperstown, Lisa has worked as a pharmacy technician at CVS in Cooperstown. 

Lisa is survived by her husband of 34 years, David Hafkin of Cooperstown; their two children, Michael Hafkin of Cooperstown, and Jessica Neer and husband, Ryan of Hartwick; and one granddaughter, Aubrey Neer. She is further survived by a sister, Patricia Nolin and husband, Edward of Islip; two nephews, Ryan and Sean Nolin and a great nephew, Aleksandar Nolin; her mother-in-law, Arlene Hafkin of Smithtown; and her husband’s brothers, Matthew Hafkin of Jericho and Howard Hafkin of Nesconset, and nieces and nephews, Elizabeth, great nephew Austin Ross, Kyle, Jake, Aaron, Brett and Mackenzie. 

She was predeceased by her mother, Gloria, who died August 19, 2013, and her father, Pasquale, who died December 12, 2017, as well as her father-in-law, Larry Hafkin, who died April 4, 2022.

Lisa will be reposing at the Connell, Dow & Deysenroth Funeral Home, 82 Chestnut Street, Cooperstown, where family and friends may call and pay their respects from 4-6 p.m. on Wednesday, August 14, 2024.

A graveside service will be offered at 2 p.m. Thursday, August 15, 2024, at St. Mary’s Cemetery, 5070 State Highway 28, Cooperstown, with Fr. Michael Cambi, pastor of St. Mary’s “Our Lady of the Lake” Roman Catholic Church in Cooperstown, officiating. 


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.