Mrs. Grace Godfrey, a look back at the youth of my teacher and respected elder.
Thursday Nostalgia
I mentioned in my last Thursday Nostalgia piece that Mrs. Grace Godfrey and Mrs. Helen Owens were not very warm and fuzzy with their affections.
Mrs. Owens was a widow. Her and her husband lived across the street from us next to the old firehouse. I probably knew Mr. Owens but he passed away when I was still young. Mrs. Owens wore wire-framed glasses which gave her bigger eyes. She had an olive complexion and cheeks like a Howdy-Doody doll. She seemed happy enough, but I could sense a sadness or uncertainty. She didn’t give hugs but her smile that was always bright and cheery.
To me, Mrs. Godfrey was always old. I never got to see her young, vibrant, just married or graduating from high school. But I am now curious about all those old folks who raised me and influenced my thinking and contributed to my youthful experience. Mrs. Godfrey was a teacher. She was my Sunday school teacher. She smiled with my mom and among the elders but rarely with children.
My sister, Deedee, told me that one time Mrs. Godfrey, who was also a good pianist, was leading the children’s choir. Deedee and some of the other girls had platform shoes that made too much noise on the wooden floors. Mrs. Godfrey made them do the procession and perform in barefeet so as not to wake the dead with their clogs. She was a disciplinarian and some kids were not too fond of her. I didn’t mind her. If she said jump, I did. If she grabbed my arm and pulled me to another spot, I went. Deedee struggled with Mrs. Godfrey.
She lived on a dairy farm, but she did not speak or behave like a farm girl. Her husband, V. Kenneth Godfrey, operated one of the largest dairy farms in the county. Mr. Godfrey was the Mamakating Town Supervisor for years and I think was the head of the county board of supervisors as well. Ken Godfrey, as he was known, was a card-carrying ol’ boy Republican and highly respected. His political career ended when Dennis Greenwald, a pharmacist and Democrat from Wurtsboro, beat him. That’s another long gruesome story.
So the other day, I was surfing through the New York State Digital Records website. And by chance, I found some fun things about Mrs. Grace Godfrey that I want to share with anybody who knew her or would like to know her.
Mrs. Godfrey was born in 1912 in Lake Placid, New York. Before marriage, she was Miss Grace Ferris. Her grandfather and great-grandfather were born in Vermont. After high school, she attended the Potsdam Normal School. I learned that a normal school trained teachers to work in elementary and secondary schools. At this time, most graduates were women but there were some men attending these teacher colleges.
I was hoping I would find a youthful picture of Mrs. Godfrey. No chance, at least not yet. But I did find a reference to her in the Potsdam Normal Magazine dated January 1936. It’s a letter from Elizabeth E. Cassalette confirming that she got word from two of her classmates: “Ruth Stairs and Grace Ferris write that they are enjoying their teaching.” All of them graduated from the Normal School in 1935.
So Mrs. Godfrey was working as a teacher immediately after graduating college. Guess where? Bloomingburg Union Free School District. It must have been a big change of life to come from a resort town like Lake Placid to sleepy little Bloomingburg. She must have been all alone and tired after spending all day with local kids. But that same year, she met Mr. Godfrey. He was about two years older than her.
I still can’t imagine what they looked like. Or how they met. How does anybody meet and decided to marry anybody? I know Mr. and Mrs. Godfrey met in Bloomingburg because I found the wedding announcement in the Lake Placid News, May 15, 1936:
It is amazing to think that Mrs. Godfrey had a copy of these clippings in her scrapbooks or photo album. Knowing her personal history and events of her youth makes me feel even closer to her.
Jane and Ruth were her twin daughters. They were old too. They had already grown up and moved away when I was a youth. But I would see them occasionally when they visited the village from California or someplace out west. Just like their mom, they both wore thick glasses. I don’t think Jane ever married.
I have always kept an ear out for things going on in my village. Yes, Bloomingburg is my village. Even when I lived in Manhattan or Newburgh I heard of the changes and old timers who passed on. Mrs. Godfrey was bed-ridden but took visitors. I never got a chance to go see her before she passed. Maybe that was for the best. I always saw her being old, but to see her withering away would have been painful. I want to remember her old but still strong. Still able to direct a choir, discipline the most unruly child and hold the attention of a classroom full of distracted kids.
Mrs. Godfrey passed away at home at the age of 93.