The Highlands at Pittsford

100 years old – Marion Clapsaddle was born April 22, 1909, in Dexter, Jefferson County, to Bessie and Porter House. She spent her childhood years in Brownville, Watertown and Black River, all in Jefferson County, and graduated from Black river High School in 1926 and the Watertown School of Commerce in 1927.

Mrs. Clapsaddle was an office employee for several years and was also employed by Assemblyman Walter Pratt in Albany at the time that he introduced the state gasoline tax. She married Allen Clapsaddle on Sept. 1, 1930, and moved to Chaumont, Jefferson County, where she worked at the Crescent Milling Company and Lyme Central School for 10 years each. After retiring in 1971, the Clapsaddles moved to St. Petersburg, Fla., in 1972 and spent their summers up north.

Mr. Clapsaddle died in 1999 and she moved to this area to live with her eldest granddaughter and family. Her only child, a daughter, Frances, died in June 2007.

Mrs. Clapsaddle was a wonderful cook and seamstress and made lots of clothes for her family over the years. She and her husband lived on a farm with her father-in-law for a bit and they had a 500-colony apiary, a collection of hives and colonies of bees kept for their honey. Unfortunately, she was allergic to the bees but loved to eat honey and use it in her cooking and baking. The couple enjoyed boating and fishing and the roses that grew in their garden. She was a member of the Order of the Eastern Star of Chaumont for many years. She has four grandchildren and two great grandchildren.