Esther Parsons
1952 Canara
Born: September 27, 1910
Died: July 27, 1998
Married: Perry Steven Parsons
Children: Fred Parsons, Paul Parsons
Esther Eberhardt Parsons taught at the Bloomingdale School, the Study and Craft Guild, and Saranac Lake High School. Her husband built the Parson's Camp on Gull Point on Upper Saranac Lake, and her son said she would not let her family cut the trees on the property-- the half-acre lot is now covered with tall pines and hemlocks.
Adirondack Daily Enterprise, July 29, 1998
SARANAC LAKE - Esther Eberhardt Parsons, 87, of Lake Placid, died Monday, July 27, 1998 at the Uihlein Mercy Center.
Born Sept. 27, 1910 in Monroe, Wash., she was the daughter of Frederick and Bertha (Hammerli) Eberhardt.
Mrs. Parsons attended grammar and high school in Clayville. Upon graduation from high school, she attended the Excelsior Business School in Utica and Alfred University where she majored in English and German. After receiving her Bachelor of Arts degree in 1931, she worked at Cornell University. She also attended Albany College and the New York University. She also attended Albany College and the New York State College for Teachers. Then she returned to Utica, where she worked as a legal secretary and taught evening school at the Utica Free Academy.
In 1935, she married Perry Steven Parsons and moved to Bloomingdale. Following the birth of her two sons, she accepted a teaching position at the Bloomingdale Union School in 1938. After the start of World War II, the family moved to Massena where she continued teaching. In 1943, she returned to Saranac Lake where she was head of the commercial department at the Saranac Lake Study & Craft Guild for several years. In addition to teaching regular guild students, she also instructed veterans during World War II, helping them earn high school credits under the GI Bill of Rights. She then joined the English Department at the Saranac Lake High School in the late 1940s.
Mrs. Parsons received her masters degree in education and completed the necessary coursework for her doctorate degree in 1965. She retired in 1972 to join her husband and pursue their travel plans.
She was devoted to her family, her students and her grandchildren and resided in Bloomingdale from 1949 to 1986.
She was a loving wife and mother and a caring grandmother and teacher.
Survivors include: two sons, Fred of Mercer Island, Wash, and Paul of Pittsford; a sister, Mary Eberhardt Garvey Gibbons of Bethany, Okla.; a sister-in-law, Patricia Parsons Newell of Bloomingdale; and several grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
She was predeceased by her husband in 1978.
Calling hours will be held from 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 p.m. Thursday at the Fortune-Keough Funeral Home.
Funeral services will be held at 2 p.m. Friday at the First Presbyterian Church of Saranac Lake. The Fortune-Keough Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.
Burial will be held at the Bloomingdale Brookside Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests that remembrances be given to any charity of the donors choice in her name.
