Mary Anna Booth

Mary Anna Booth

MILLERTON — Mary Anna Booth, 90, an 87-year resident of Millerton, and most recently of Rhinebeck, N.Y., died peacefully on Dec. 7, 2020, at The Thompson House where she had resided in comfort for the past three years. She was surrounded by her loving caregivers at the time of her passing.

Born June 3, 1930, in Sharon, she was the daughter of the late Henrietta (Perotti) and Henry W. Shaffer. She graduated from Millerton High School in 1947 and married Donald T. Booth on Aug. 16, 1952, at the Smithfield Presbyterian Church in Amenia. Together for more than 65 years, Mary and Don operated the Booth Farm on McGhee Hill Road in Millerton, a very successful dairy farm that had ties with the Town of North East for several generations. 

Mary was an avid gardener and had a great fondness and concern for all animals. 

Mary and Don were well known for their devotion to family and friends throughout their lives. They semi-retired from dairy farming in 1990 but continued to care for their vast property with great pride and much love in their later years. Mr. Booth died on Dec. 9, 2017.

Mary was a decades-long member of the Faith Bible Chapel of Shekomeko on Silver Mountain Road in Millerton. 

Though small in stature she was at times larger than life with her “can do” spirit and boisterous personality. Fearless in making her perspective known, she was an iconic personality to the church fellowship. Mary and Don donated the land on which Faith Bible Chapel now stands and they were both personally involved in the construction phase of the ministry in 1998 and 1999 as well as many other ongoing activities. Mary worked diligently and could be found at every Work Day; she was a living example of one of the Chapel family’s purpose statements: Service Is Love in Working Clothes! 

Mary is survived by her sister, Elinor Duprey of Copake, N.Y., and her husband, Robert; several loving nieces and nephews, grand-nieces and grand-nephews and cousins; and many dear friends. 

In addition to her parents and her beloved husband, Mary was also predeceased by her dear brother, Henry J. Shaffer; and her loving sister, Elizabeth McGhee.

The family would like to thank all her friends who visited her while at The Thompson House and extend a special thank you to all Mary’s caregivers while she was in residence.

Graveside services and burial were held Dec. 12 at Irondale Cemetery in Millerton, the Rev.William Mayhew officiating. 

Memorial donations may be made to the North East Community Center Fresh Food Pantry, P.O. Box 35, Millerton, NY 12546; or Millerton Fire Company, P.O. Box 733, Millerton, NY 12546. 

Arrangements have been entrusted to the Scott D. Conklin Funeral Home in Millerton. To send an online condolence, go to www.conklinfuneralhome.com.

Latest News

South Kent School’s unofficial March reunion

Elmarko Jackson was named a 2023 McDonald’s All American in his senior year at South Kent School. He helped lead the Cardinals to a New England Prep School Athletic Conference (NEPSAC) AAA title victory and was recruited to play at the University of Kansas. This March he will play point guard for the Jayhawks when they enter the tournament as a No. 4 seed against (13) Samford University.

Riley Klein

SOUTH KENT — March Madness will feature seven former South Kent Cardinals who now play on Division 1 NCAA teams.

The top-tier high school basketball program will be well represented with graduates from each of the past three years heading to “The Big Dance.”

Keep ReadingShow less
Hotchkiss grads dancing with Yale

Nick Townsend helped Yale win the Ivy League.

Screenshot from ESPN+ Broadcast

LAKEVILLE — Yale University advanced to the NCAA men’s basketball tournament after a buzzer-beater win over Brown University in the Ivy League championship game Sunday, March 17.

On Yale’s roster this year are two graduates of The Hotchkiss School: Nick Townsend, class of ‘22, and Jack Molloy, class of ‘21. Townsend wears No. 42 and Molloy wears No. 33.

Keep ReadingShow less
Handbells of St. Andrew’s to ring out Easter morning

Anne Everett and Bonnie Rosborough wait their turn to sound notes as bell ringers practicing to take part in the Easter morning service at St. Andrew’s Church.

Kathryn Boughton

KENT—There will be a joyful noise in St. Andrew’s Church Easter morning when a set of handbells donated to the church some 40 years ago are used for the first time by a choir currently rehearsing with music director Susan Guse.

Guse said that the church got the valuable three-octave set when Harlem Valley Psychiatric Center closed in the late 1980s and the bells were donated to the church. “The center used the bells for music therapy for younger patients. Our priest then was chaplain there and when the center closed, he brought the bells here,” she explained.

Keep ReadingShow less
Picasso’s American debut was a financial flop
Picasso’s American debut was a financial flop
Penguin Random House

‘Picasso’s War” by Foreign Affairs senior editor Hugh Eakin, who has written about the art world for publications like The New York Review of Books, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker and The New York Times, is not about Pablo Picasso’s time in Nazi-occupied Paris and being harassed by the Gestapo, nor about his 1937 oil painting “Guernica,” in response to the aerial bombing of civilians in the Basque town during the Spanish Civil War.

Instead, the Penguin Random House book’s subtitle makes a clearer statement of intent: “How Modern Art Came To America.” This war was not between military forces but a cultural war combating America’s distaste for the emerging modernism that had flourished in Europe in the early decades of the 20th century.

Keep ReadingShow less