Person:Lee Starr (1)

LEE HULL STARR (1878-1970)

"Lee served as supervisor of the Town of Morris from 1924 to 1934, and was Postmaster at Morris from 1935 to 1950. He was a member of the Otsego county Selective Service Board for 26 years. (Ed; He owned a restaurant with his father-in-law, Nathan L. Johnson on Broad Street in Oneonta for a few years.)

He was a member of Zion Church; past deputy grand master of Thianderah Lodge No. 605, F&M; Hillington Chapter; Otsego Commandery, Cooperstown; Ziyara Shrine of Utica; a charter member of Morris Rotary Club; a member of Otsego County Cooperative Fire Insurance Company, and the Elks Club of Oneonta.

The family will receive friends at the Moore Funeral Home in Gilbertsville. Funeral and committal services are at the Zion Episcopal Church and internment at Hillington cemetery in Morris." - obituary

Lee Starr spent his entire ninety years living in Morris. His wife died when my father was two, and he never re-married. He wore Chrissie's wedding ring on his little finger to his grave.

Each summer, my family would spend a month in Morris when I was a child, and then I would spend another month with Grandpa by myself. He was a wonderful companion. I went everywhere with him; meetings, bowling, movies, card parties, etc. We ate all our meals at Delongs, the local restaurant. Our dinner companion was usually Alden Ripley and his dog, Lief. Wonderful times!

After we moved to Morris, Grandpa would pick me up and drive me to the movies every Saturday night. After I saw the movie and had a Coke with friends, he would pick me up and take me home.

Lee was a doting and loving great-grandfather for our children. It was great fun watching him go for walks with six little ones gathered about him. He'd take them to the store, tell them to take what they wanted (and they would load up), and he'd pick up the tab.

He was a wonderful singer and fiddler. He was never happier than when he played and sang, joined by Hazel Roffe on piano, and someone on banjo. Playing cards was also a favorite pastime - he loved poker, gin rummy, and pinochle. He and my mother would play cards 3 or four times a week.

On the last day of his life, he was playing cards at the Legion Hall. As they sat around the table, one of his buddies said "Lee, your turn to deal". Getting no response, he cautioned "Lee, be careful! Your cigar is burning a hole in your sweater!" Grandpa had slumped over dead. He is greatly missed.

Related by Patricia Newquist

The following poem was one of Lee Starr's favorite. It is very appropriate to recall, for everyone who came in contact with this man who lived 92 years in the same small town had a similar statement about Lee's character - they never heard him say anything bad about a person, and never knew anyone to speak poorly of him.

THE HOUSE BY THE SIDE OF THE ROAD

by Sam Walter Foss

There are hermit souls that live withdrawn In the place of their self-content; There are souls like stars that dwell apart

In a fellowless firmament;

There are pioneer souls that blaze their paths Where highways never ran,- But let me live by the side of the road, And be a friend to man.

I see from my house by the side of the road

By the side of the highway of life,

The men who press with the ardor of hope

The men who are faint with the strife;

But I turn not away from their smiles nor their tears, Both parts of an infinite plan; Let me live by the side of the road, And be a friend to man.

I know there are brook-gladdened meadows ahead, And mountains of wearisome height; That the road passes on through the long afternoon, And stretches away to the night, But still I rejoice when the travelers rejoice, And weep with strangers that moan; Nor live in my house by the side of the road, Like a man who dwells alone.

Let me live in my house by the side of the road, Where the race of men go by; They are good, they are bad; they are weak, they are strong. Wise, foolish - so am 1; Then why should I sit in the scorner's seat, Or hurl the cynics ban? Let me live by the side of the road And be a friend to man.

"PROPERLY ORIENTED"

During the past loo years, there have been few burials in the ancient cemetery behind Christ Episcopal Church in Cooperstown, NY, but it is visited annually by thousands of tourists. Some spend a moment at the grave of James Fenimore Cooper, glance inside the Church and then hurry on, their sightseeing duty performed. The real lovers of churchyards (and there are many) wander among the tombs, reading carefully and, in some instances, copying down the quaint inscriptions.

The first burials were made with regard to the old Christian custom of burying the dead with their feet toward the east. Quite naturally the graves were laid out parallel to the sides of the enclosure which lacked a few degrees of running due east and west.

Joseph Start, a potter, whom Fenimore Cooper has described as a "respectable inhabitant of the village", had his own views on the matter. To him east was east and not east by south. Accordingly the graves of the Starr family face exactly due east. To the casual observer the three headstones seem somewhat awry, but the fact is that they are the only ones in the churchyard that are properly oriented.

Paths of glory led to some of these graves, but those who only served sleep nearby. Here lie the imperious master and servile slave; the great, the good and the ignoble, all made indistinguishable by death, the great leveler.

-Cooperstown, NY press clipping

I toured this cemetery one afternoon with Lee Starr, while he told stories about his ancestors. - Harvey P. Newquist II