The accomplishments by several area women were wide-ranging, and memorable during the month of June 1976.
Some accomplishments had been quietly made, as readers of The Daily Star of June 2 learned, “For years, when the City of Oneonta needed a new ambulance, a recreational facility, or police equipment, ‘an anonymous donor’ would provide it for the city.
“Last week the anonymous donor died. Last night Mayor James Lettis praised the donor — Mrs. Jessie Smith Dewar.
“Lettis said in his 14 years at City Hall, Mrs. Dewar would frequently purchase items the city departments needed but couldn’t afford. But she never wanted any publicity.
“‘Very few people knew who the anonymous donor was,’ Lettis told the Common Council. ‘She was the kind of person who shared what she had with others,’ the mayor said of Mrs. Dewar, who died at 96 last week.”
Shared she did, as The Star of June 11 reported, “Hartwick College and Fox Hospital are multi-million dollar beneficiaries of the will of Oneonta philanthropist Jessie Smith Dewar whose estate, unconfirmed reports indicate, could total $50 million.
“The college and the hospital, both always beneficiaries of Mrs. Dewar’s generosity, will share equally 80 percent of the residue of the estate after more than $4.5 million in bequests to charities and individuals have been bestowed.
“In addition to sharing in the residual estate, both Hartwick and Fox are given 4,000 shares of IBM stock each.” Jessie and husband James were early 20th century investors in IBM stock.
Other bequests from the Dewar estate went to the St. James Episcopal, First United Presbyterian, First United Methodist and St. Mary’s Roman Catholic churches, Riverside Cemetery, Oneonta Boys Club, Oneonta Family YMCA, Otschodela Boy Scout Council and Indian Hill Girl Scout Council, Oneonta Country Club and Oneonta Woman’s Club.
The estate administrative and probate process took several years.
Also that month, The Star of June 17 reported, “Oneonta State’s Instructional Resource Center has been named in memory of former teacher Evelyn R. Hodgdon.
“Miss Hodgdon was a member of the SUCO faculty for 25 years. She died on February 4, 1974.
“She initiated the first program of off-campus student teaching and was well known for her innovative program in rural school teacher preparation. During her tenure at SUCO she served as Director of Off-Campus Student Teaching and was, for many years, chairman of the Education Department.”
From the world of show business, Star readers of June 5 found out, “France’s ranking actress in the 1930s, Jeanne Helbling Garin, became a vital component of the French underground network during World War II.
“She spends her time as a contented housewife in Franklin. The 73-year-old woman is as glamorous now as she was when she starred on the silver screen with such leading men as Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Buster Keaton and Charles Boyer.
“During the war, her Paris apartment was used as a frequent meeting place for the underground and she sheltered numerous English, French and American flyers and soldiers who needed a safe, secret place to hide.”
We might not have been looking at downtown Oneonta’s Ford Block area today, had a woman missed a phone call at her desk.
As The Star of June 15 reported, “A dispute over the demolition of the block on the corner of Main and Broad Streets was almost settled by the plumb of a crane.
“F.S. Lopke Construction Co., which has the demolition contract for those buildings, arrived in town on schedule last week to raze the structure.
“The Urban Renewal Agency never told Lopke that a federal court judge ordered demolition delayed pending the outcome of a suit brought against the agency by a group of downtown merchants.
“Shirleen Oliver, Urban Renewal’s secretary, told agency members last night that a call from the firm informing them that the equipment was in town ready to go, sent Relocation Director William Hughes running down to the site to stop the demolition.
“‘The guy was in the crane ready to go and Mr. Hughes ran out of here like a shot,’ Mrs. Oliver said.” A great save.
On Saturday, a year of many developments in Oneonta in 1876.