Leonard Fruchtman, the retired self employed owner and operator of a carpet cleaning service in Monticello, and a longtime area resident died on Monday, October 4, 2004 in Catskill Regional Medical Center in Harris. He was 78.
He was a World War II Army Veteran. He was born on January 10, 1926 in Brooklyn to Morris and Lean Fruchtman.
He is survived by his wife, Anna Wurm Fruchtman at home in Monticello, his sons, Jack, Martin and Lee Fruchtman, his daughters, Phyllis Maybloom, Carol Kinnie, Susan Fruchtman, Audrey Ackerman and Brenda Fruchtman, his brothers Ruby, Leon and Harry Fruchtman, his sisters, Julie Fruchtman, Jean Graceffo and Rosie Frankiel Nitzan, and his 28 grandchildren, and 25 great-grandchildren, and a host of nieces, nephews and cousins.
He was predeceased by his one son, Harold Fruchtman and two sisters, Ruth Solomon and Hilda Landow.
Funeral services were held on Wednesday, October 6, 2004 at the Joseph N. Garlick Funeral Home Inc. on 388 Broadway, Monticello. Burial will be in the New Montefiore Cemetery, Pinelawn.
The family will be sitting Shiva at their own homes in Monticello and Florida.

Michael T. Kearney, a three year resident of Monticello, died Sunday, October 3, 2004 at home. He was 55.
He was born in Brooklyn on May 31, 1949 to the late Michael J. and Ruth Strasser Kearney. He was a Vietnam Veteran.
He is survived by a daughter, Shannon Kearney of Stony Brook, three brothers, George, James and Robert Kearney, all of Monticello, a sister, Ruth Kearney of Liberty and several nieces and nephews. He was predeceased by a sister, Catherine Cardillo and a brother, Paul Kearney.
A Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated by Rev. Robert Ginel at St. Peter's Roman Catholic Church on Broadway and Liberty Street in Monticello at 10 a.m. on Friday October 8, 2004.
Interment with Military Honors will be in the Sullivan County Veterans Cemetery Sunset Lake Road, Liberty.

Albert Roland "Rollie" Nearing of Lake Huntington, a retired New York State DOT employee and a lifelong area resident died suddenly, Monday, October 4, 2004 at his home. He was 88.
The son of the late Theodore (Doc) Walter Nearing and Emma May Kirchoeffer, he was born November 13, 1915 in Lake Huntington. He was married for 56 years to the late Lynette Gregor.
Rollie was a member of the Lake Huntington Presbyterian Church, always helping to maintain the church. He was also a 50 year life member of the Lake Huntington Fire Department.
Survivors include a son, Ronald Nearing of Williamson, a daughter, Joan Long of Hallstead, PA; a sister, Alma Bischoff of Lake Huntington, a sister-in-law, Marie Van Orden of Honesdale, PA; five grandchildren, ten great-grandchildren, one great-great-grandson and several nieces and nephews. He was predeceased by five brothers, Millard Theodore, Harry, Percy Walter, Carl Vernon and Robert Arthur and by seven sisters, Gladys E., Elsie, Cora,Lillian, Ruth M., Edith Rose and Emma.
Friends are invited to call on Fridday, October 8, 2004 at 11 a.m. at the funeral home in Narrowsburg.
Burial will be in the Fosterdale Cemetery.
Memorial contributions may be made to the Cochecton Ambulance or to the Lake Huntington Presbyterian Church, both of Lake Huntington.

Robert W. Brown, died at his home on Sunday, October 3, 2004. He was 77.
A lifelong resident, he was born in Corbitt on December 5, 1927 to the late Willis and Aretta Ferguson Brown.
He was a retired tunnel worker with construction workers Local 147 in New York City, and a member of the Community Methodist Church in Kauneonga Lake.
He is survived by his wife of 42 years, Laura Jane Ferguson Brown at home, three sons, Benson Brown of Narrowsburg, Robert Brown of Monticello, and Joseph Brown, a daughter, Annette Brown, a sister in law, Judy Morgan all of Ferndale, four brothers, Ernest Brown of Norwich, Willis Brown of Oneonta, LeRoy Brown and George Brown, both of Florida, four sisters, Doris Chase of Florida, Laura Brazze of Norwich, Bessie Brown of Little Falls and Bertha Brown of Oneonta.
He is further survived by three grandchildren, Patricia Scarlett, and Adam and Eric Kitchon of Norwich, two special nieces, Dawn Allen and husband, Lenard of Dryden and Debbie Gessling and husband, Mike of Gainesville, FL.
He was predeceased by a daughter, Patti Brown, a sister, Viola Dillenbeck, and a brother, Charles Brown.
Funeral services were held at Ramsay's Funeral Home on Thursday, October 7, 2004. The Rev. Kenneth Rodgers officiated.
Cremation will be at the convenience of the family at Cedar Hill Crematory in Newburgh.
Memorial contributions may be made to Hospice of Orange and Sulllivan Counties, 800 Stony Brook Court, Newburgh, NY 12550.

Jennie Lindsley, of Naples, FL, passed away on Friday, October 1, 2004 after a brief illness. Born in Danville, KY, Jennie had lived in White Sulphur Springs for forty-five years before moving to Naples in 1983. She was 92.
Jennie was an active member of the White Sulphur Springs Methodist Church and had been employed by the school district and also by Marcia's Dress Shop in Liberty.
The widow of Feldon Lindsley, Jennie is survived by her daughters, Terene Stewart (Norman) of Oswego, Susan McGorrian (John) of Woodstock, IL and Barbara Lindsley (Bob Sherwood) of Thornton, CO. She has five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
A memorial service was held in Naples, FL.
Contributions can be made in her memory to either the White Sulphur Springs Methodist Church or to the Hospice program of the donor's choice, would be deeply appreciated.

Bernadine S. "Billie-Jo" Cole Hust, a life-long area resident, died at home on October 5, 2004. She was 40.
The daughter of James Cole Sr. and the late Penny C. Jones Cole, she was born in Liberty on July 16, 1964.
She was a self employed craft maker.
Survivors include her husband, Gregory at home, 2 children, John and Mary Ellen Hust, her father James Cole, Sr. of Ferndale and many dear relatives and friends.
A memorial service will be held on Friday, October 8, 2004 at the Stewart-Murphy Funeral Home in Jeffersonville at 1 p.m. with Pastor Kristen Anderson officiating.
Cremation will be at the Twin Tiers Crematory in Endicott.

Clifford "Hoot" Gibson, of West Palm Beach, FL, died October 1, 2004 in West Palm Beach. He was 84.
The son of George and Maria Reynolds Gibson, he was born September 13, 1920 in Andes.
He was a truck driver for Dellwood Creamery, Delhi and Heritage Energy, Ellenville. He was a security guard at VAW Aluminum and was an avid bowler. He served in the United States Army during WW II.
He is survived by his wife, Mae of 58 years; three sons, David and his wife, Shirley of Napanoch, Donald and his wife, Sylvia of Hamden, Andrew of West Palm Beach, FL; a brother, Clarence of Andes; many grandchildren, William of Kerhonkson, Lisa Slegona and husband, John of Ellenville, Jean Derrick of Napanoch, David Jr. of Napanoch, Lance and wife, Marie of Rosendale, Gerald and wife, Barbara of Wawarsing, Amanda and Frank of Napanoch, Rebecca and Brian Horvath also of Napanoch, Andy Jr. Gibson of PA, Andrea Lemus of Kingston, Matthew Gibson and Clifford Gibson both of PA, Brian and wife, Nancy of Ellenville, Dawn Van Buern of Walton, Christina and husband, Jason Marko of Staatsburg; several great-grandchildren and nieces and nephews.
He will be greatly missed by all.
Funeral services were held at 10 a.m. on Thursday, October 7, 2004 at the funeral home. The Rev. Jay Vogelaar officiated.
Burial will be in Andes Cemetery.

Lori Mae Alonso, a shift leader at Dunkin Donuts in Monticello, died Wednesday, October 6, 2004 at the Catskill Regional Medical Center in Harris. She was 40.
The daughter of Walter Conklin and the late Dorothy (Price) Conklin, she was born January 15, 1964 in Monticello.
Survivors include her father, Walt Conklin of Monticello; her son, Jorge Alonso; her two daughters, Jessel Alonso and Jennel Alonso, all at home; two sisters, Amy-Jo Conklin of Bridgeville and Karen Patel of Monticello; and a brother, Keith Conklin of Monticello.
Her memorial service will be held on Saturday, October 9, 2004 at 10 a.m. at the VanInwegen-Kenny, Inc. Funeral Home, 401 Broadway in Monticello. The Rev. Roy Shaffer will officiate.
Interment of her ashes will be held at a later date in the Hurleyville Cemetery.
Memorial contributions can be made to the American Cancer Society, 95 Schwenk Drive, Kingston, NY 12401; or to the Brian Ahearn Children's Fund, PO Box 550, Warwick, NY 10990.
Arrangements are by the VanInwegen-Kenny, Inc. Funeral Home of Monticello. For additional service information please go to www.kennyfuneralhome.com

Ruth Claire Beimler of Liberty, a retired reading teacher and a longtime area resident, died Tuesday, October 5, 2004 at the Roscoe Community Nursing Home. She was 79.
The daughter of the late Louis and Gertrude Beaufrere Eggert, she was born June 18, 1925 in Mt. Vernon.
She was a graduate of A.B. Davis High School in Mt. Vernon. She was also a Junior League Volunteer at Mt. Vernon Hospital during World War II and had been an active member and Sunday School Teacher at the First Presbyterian Church of Mt. Vernon. She later was an active member of the First Presbyterian Churches of Patterson, Liberty and Plano, TX. She was predeceased by her husband, Rev. George Beimler.
In a family statement, "Ruth was fond of dachshunds and was proud to have raised five generations."
Survivors include a daughter, Laurie of Tucson, AZ; a son, Gregg and his wife, Teri of Liberty; two grandsons, Nik and Jack also of Liberty and many devoted friends.
Visitation will be Friday (today), October 8, 2004 from 2-4 and 7-9 p.m. in the Harris Funeral Home on West Street at Buckley, Liberty.
Funeral services will be Saturday, October 9, 2004 at 10 a.m. in the First Presbyterian Church of Liberty, So. Main Street, Liberty. The Rev. Sally Francisco-Baumer will officiate.
Burial will be in the Laurel Hill Cemetery in White Sulphur Springs.
Memorial contributions may be made to Dana Farber Cancer Institute and the "Jimmy Fund" Attn: Contribution Services, 10 Brookline Place West, Brookline, MA 02445.

Harriet Brainum, a longtime area resident died on Wednesday, October 6, 2004 at the Orange County Residential Care Facility in Goshen. She was 82.
She was born on November 12, 1921 in Brooklyn to Herman and Ethel Grossman. She was a member of the Loch Sheldrake Senior citizens club.
She is survived by her husband of 62 years, Edwin Brainum at home in Loch Sheldrake, two sons, Daniel Brainum and his wife, Mindy of Bridgewater, NJ and Michael Brainum and his wife Sarita of Maryland, her daughter, Diane Goldman of Florida, her six grandchildren, Shari, Bradley, Suzane, Sara, Corey and David, and her seven great-grandchildren and many nieces and nephews.
Graveside funeral services will be held on Sunday, October 10, 2004 at 1:30 p.m. in the Sullivan County Veterans Cemetery on Sunset Lake Dr. in Liberty. Rabbi Andrea Meyers will officiate.

Michael "Mikey" Percaccio, a resident of Smallwood, died Tuesday night at Catskill Regional Medical Center in Harris after a brief illness. The son of the late Michael and Irma Vannucci Percaccio, Michael was born on July 24, 1944 in Brooklyn. He was 60 years old.
Beloved brother of Louis and his wife, Emma Percaccio of Staten Island, and two sisters, Millie and her husband, Warren Aplin of Brooklyn and Linda Frigenti of Smallwood, caregiver. In addition to Michael's siblings, he is also survived by his nieces and nephews and their spouses: Alison Aplin, Lynda Spencer, Michael (Lina) Percaccio, Robert (Nancy) Aplin, and Karen Percaccio; eight great nieces and nephews; an aunt, Felicia Yannotti, an adopted niece, Tracy Novembri and an adopted brother in law, Bill Stevens.
The family will receive friends on Friday, October 9, 2004 at Sabatino Funeral Home, Inc., 323 Avenue, Brooklyn.
A Mass of Christian burial will be celebrated on Saturday, October 10, 2004 at 9:30 a.m. at Saints Simon and Jude Roman Catholic Church on 185 Van Sicklen Street in Brooklyn. Father Timothy Wiggins will officiate. Michael will be laid to rest in the family plot Holy Cross Cemetery, Brooklyn with his parents Michael and Irma and Paternal Grandparents Luis and Carmella.

Michael J. Palka of Jeffersonville, died on Wednesday, October 6, 2004. He was 88.
He was born to Michael and Sophie Saja Palka on July 28, 1916 in Bayonne, NJ. He was married to the late Virginia Hoffmann Palka.
He was a member of St. George's Church in Jeffersonville and was company First Seargent with the 165th AA Gun Batallion D Battery in the South Pacific during WWII.
He is survived by a daughter, Michelle Buddenhagen and her husband, William of Jeffersonville, a son Robert Palka and his wife, Joan of Rawah, NJ, four granddaughters, Donna Buddenhagen Abplanalp and her husband, Troy, Lynn Buddenhagen Tegnander and her husband, Brian, Jamie Palka and Gretchen Palka, four sisters, Jean Cleary, Helen Wines, Bertha Matusiewicz and Laura Esposito, 5 great-grandchildren, Morgan Edwards, Chelsea Abplanalp, Kenneth Abplanalp, Sean Tegnander and Allison Tegnander.
Visitation will be on Friday, October 8, 2004 at the Stewart-Murphy Funeral Home in Jeffersonville from 3 to 5 and 7 to 9 p.m.
A Funeral Mass will be on Saturday, October 9, 2004 at St. George's Church in Jeffersonville at 11 a.m. Father Ignatius Vu will officiate.
Burial will be at the Calvary Cemetery in Youngsville.
Memorial contributions can be made to St. Joseph's School For the Blind, 253 Baldwin Ave, Jersey City, NJ 07306-1388, Hospice of Orange and Sullivan, 800 Stony Brook Court, Newburgh, NY 12550 or the Leukemia Foundation.

Eddie Adams, long-time area resident of Jeffersonville and founder of the Eddie Adams Workshop died on September 19, 2004. He was 71.
He was born on June 12, 1933 in New Kensington, PA. His father was Edward Thomas Adams.
He was a professional award-winning photographer.
In a family statement it was said, "Alyssa and August Adams express their heartfelt appreciation for everyone's continued support and caring. We love you all."
A memorial service will be held at 10 a.m. on Thursday, October 21, at the Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine on 1047 Amsterdam Avenue at 112th Street in Manhattan.
A private burial for family members was held on Saturday, September 25, at Greenwood Memorial Park in New Kensington, PA. It was his request to return home to New Kensington to be interred next to his father.
In lieu of flowers, the family kindly requests contributions to support the continuation of Barnstorm: the Eddie Adams Workshop. Donations should be made payable to "North Jersey Media Group Foundation" and sent to Jennifer A. Borg, Esq., NJMG Foundation, 150 River St., Hackensack, NJ 07601.

Carl K. Meltzer of New York City and Lauderhill, FL died on September 30, 2004 at 96 in Cambridge, MA after a long and colorful life spent entertaining, inspiring, and amusing virtually everyone he ever met. Mr. Meltzer was born on New York's Lower East Side, the child of Romanian-Jewish immigrant parents. He showed an early enthusiasm for singing and dancing, and as a young child he would perform on street corners for pennies. Before long, accompanied by his father, Louis, he was making the rounds to local cafes and restaurants where he would sing and dance for the patrons. At 9, he played hooky from school to perform songs and acrobatics at a citywide talent show sponsored by the New York Evening World. Despite arriving unaccompanied and a couple of hours late, he was chosen one of the "three most talented children in New York City," and was awarded a scholarship to the Carter-Wardell School for Performing Arts on the Upper East Side.
A few years later, at 15, he left home for good to join "The Flying Nelsons," a family trapeze troupe with which he performed for small and large companies including the Ringling Brothers, Barnum & Bailey Circus. A marvelous storyteller, he recalled the vocal signals the acrobats would use to alert each other before making a flying pass. "One boy would shout in Italian, 'You have an ugly face!' and I would shout back in German, 'You are a nut!' and when we heard each other, we knew it was right." His circus career came to a dramatic and abrupt end in Eau Claire, Wisconsin after he accepted a dare to jump from an 80-foot tower into a small tank of water. "It was stupid. I hit the metal side of the tank and was in the hospital for eight months."
Taking up a less dangerous form of show business in the late '20's and '30's, he traveled the national vaudeville circuit with the stage name of Carl Meldorf as a member of a song and dance troupe called the "Versatile Steppers." He also appeared in a number of Broadway shows and reviews, traveling with many as they toured the country. But as movies replaced vaudeville in popularity, he decided to retire and enter a more conventional line of work. Following the example of a friend who had made a success in business, he opened a hairdressing salon in Middletown, and soon a second one in Liberty. Also, to recapture some of the youth he lost having gone to work at such a young age, he became a regional, and then national leader for the Boy Scouts of America. An Eagle Scout since 1935, and recipient of The Silver Beaver, scouting's highest honor, he led his Sullivan and Orange county troopers on memorable cross-country trips to the southwest, the Caribbean, and even to Europe for scouting Jamborees. He was so entertaining - with his zany humor and bubbly personality - that he became known as the "Alka Seltzer Meltzer!" So enduring was his impact on his troopers that 50 years later, many would come from across the country to celebrate him and to reminisce with stories of both his antics and his devotion at a 1988 testimonial dinner.
He spent much of the early 1950's traveling the globe, meeting and befriending a fascinating coterie of people from the worlds of literature and entertainment. He spent a number of winters on the Island of Majorca, spending time with, among others, writers Robert Graves, Noel Coward, and actor Errol Flynn. He spent his summers in the Catskills, operating Camp Chic-a-lac, a children's summer camp in Youngsville that he established with his brother-in-law, Morris Rattner. The camp pioneered integrating children with serious disabilities into its programs and activities.
In the late 1950's, he married Ruth Sand, a New York City social worker, and settled in Greenwich Village. Mindful of the growing public interest in international travel, he used his own experience as a world traveler and bon vivant to create All Nations Tours, a successful travel agency he located in New York's famed Flatiron Building. The business enabled him and his wife to pursue their passion for travel, sharing many of his favorite destinations with his clients. After he retired, they also lived in Lauderhill, FL and divided their time between their two homes. Mrs. Meltzer died in 1996.
He leaves a number of devoted nieces and nephews, Veronica Ryback of Cambridge, MA and her children Lucas Ryback of Burlington, VT and Dylan and Nancy Jo Ryback of Glendale, AZ; Roger and Lois Rattner of New Hyde Park and their children Stacy Rattner of Castleton-on-Hudson, Judd Rattner, and Rachel Rattner; Stuart Posner of Phoenix, AZ; Jerrold and Ann Mitchell of Wayland, MA; James and Doyen Mitchell of Longmont, CO; and Lucille Green of New York City. A memorial service will be announced later in the year.
Contributions to his memory should be sent to The Boy Scouts of America, Hudson Valley Council, Carl Meltzer Memorial Tribute Fund, PO Box 374, Salisbury Mills, NY 12577.