Red Plumadore,
Adirondack Daily Enterprise, June 4, 1987
Undated, unidentified clipping in a scrapbook at the Saranac Lake Veteran's Club.
Born: July 13, 1913
Died: July 29, 2001
Married: May F. Plumadore
Children: Jan Plumadore, Karen P. Rauss, Brett D. Plumadore
Hayward H. "Red" Plumadore was an attorney who served as Harrietstown Town Attorney and Supervisor, Franklin County Assemblyman and Franklin County Republican chairman for 17 years. He was also vice president of the board of the North Country Community College Foundation. He was named Chamberlain of the Saranac Lake Winter Carnival in 1964. In 1987, he was inducted into the Saranac Lake High School Hall of Fame. He was also a World War II veteran.
This photograph was published a third time, with a caption reading "Ensign Hayward H. Plumadore, formerly of Saranac Lake, who was recently awarded the Purple Heart for wounds received during the invasion of Sicily. He was ordered to naval duty in June, 1943 and went on active sea duty last August. He is the nephew of Mrs. Mildred Lawrence of 20 River street."
And it was published yet again with the caption "Hayward H. Plumadore, formerly of Saranac Lake, who has been promoted to the rank of lieutenant (j. g.) in the Navy. He is stationed somewhere in England at the present time and is a holder of the Purple Heart award…"
Undated, unidentified clipping in a scrapbook at the Saranac Lake Veteran's Club.Reportedly, Plumadore contracted TB while working as a tray boy. He attended St Lawrence University where he was the roommate of Isadore Demsky, who later became actor Kirk Douglas; he appeared in a 1958 segment of This is Your Life that featured Douglas, who graduated from SLU in 1939. During Plumadore's lifetime, news reports mentioning him often remarked that as a young man he wrestled professionally as the "Masked Marvel."
"Red" and May Plumadore purchased and lived in the Steele camp between 1967 and 1969, when the house burned down while they were away.
Red later lived at 7 Birch Street. He bought and renovated the Evergreen Lodge and the Eagles Nest.
Adirondack Daily Enterprise, September 18, 1987
Ken Wilson and Red
By ROGER TUBBY
Red Plumadore was raised by his grandparents in Lake Clear. At age twelve he started working in the woods at Bay Pond northwest of Paul Smith's. Phelps Smith made him supervisor of a construction crew at age sixteen.
Red replaced a man whom he beat up for manhandling a fellow worker.
A very strong tough kid, he cleared sixty or seventy trees a day, some well over one hundred feet tall.
One September morning he went into Saranac Lake to get a haircut. Redskin football coach Ken Wilson (later superintendent of schools) spotted him, asked him if he'd ever played football. No. Young Plumadore had never seen a football game.
"Report to the gym at 3:30 p.m.," Ken said. Red had not even registered for school. Suited-up he went out to the field.
"No one told me what to do. I was standing there when three guys came charging down the field. I was hit and sent flying six or seven feet. Then Coach Wilson told me what to do. After that, I did OK."
He became all-Adirondack tackle and captain of the team, went on to St. Lawrence University and starred there after being offered a football scholarship at Colgate.
"Sam Sebo, AU-American fullback at Syracuse was here as a patient with TB. He saw me play at high school, "Red said, "and thought I'd be great for coach Andy Kerr at Colgate."
But with his summer-time earnings as a carnival show Masked Marvel taking on all-comers, Red opted for St. Lawrence with Ken Wilson's encouragement.
As a college wrestler he lost only one bout, when he had a torn cartilage, and later at Albany Law School he was the wrestling team, wrestling in the 165, 175, and unlimited weight classes.
Lumberjack, unbeaten Masked Marvel, collegiate football and wrestling star, Red Plumadore had some dicey encounters along the way, but these and other matters await another Random Tale.
Adirondack Daily Enterprise, June 4, 1987
Five inducted into SLHS Sports Hall of Fame
[...]
Red Plumadore
Plumadore played a number of sports for Saranac Lake. He excelled in football and was an outstanding wrestler. He eventually paid his way through St. Lawrence University by wrestling as the Masked Marvel in amatuer and professional bouts throughout New York State.
At St. Lawrence, he had a record of 31-1 as a collegiate wrestler, losing only one match to a heavyweight. Because his team was small, the coach often pitted the strong 165-pounder against the opponent's heavyweights in an effort to score team points. The coach sometimes surprised the opposing coach with a wager to go with it.
He was picked to compete on the U.S. Wrestling Team for the 1940 Olympics. Unfortunately, the Olympics were cancelled because of the war. Plumadore will be 74 this year. He's still an avid tennis player and runs four or five miles a day. He makes his home in Florida, but often comes back to visit Saranac Lake...
Local legend dies at 88
Adirondack Daily Enterprise, July 31, 2001
Enterprise Staff Writer
SARANAC LAKE - Former wrestler, lawyer and New York state Assemblyman Hayward "Red" Plumadore died Sunday, July 29, 2001 at the Adirondack Medical Center in Saranac Lake. He was 88.
He was born in Lyon Mountain on July 13, 1913 and did much of his growing up in Lake Clear with his mother and her family.
He began working in logging camps near Lake Clear and Tupper Lake when he was 12 years old. Recreational fighting was a common pastime there, and he learned how to take down men larger than himself.
He was introduced to tent fighting at a carnival in Tupper Lake when he was 15 or 16. Pushed into the ring, he defeated the star wrestler, Bull Montana, won $50 for his conquest and was asked to join the carnival circuit.
He attended Saranac Lake schools, and in high school, coach Ken Wilson recruited him for the football team. Plumadore soon became a star lineman and went on to similar accolades at St. Lawrence University. St. Lawrence also introduced him to organized wrestling, boxing and academics. He became a wrestler of national prominence and boxed professionally.
Plumadore financed his college education as a tent fighter in carnivals around the Northeast, going by the name of "the Masked Marvel." Anyone who could stay in the ring with him for five minutes won $50; anyone who pinned him won $500. None of his opponents ever took home the $500 purse.
The tent fights were quick when they were real; Plumadore said he once defeated 32 U.S. Army servicemen in one day. Longer fights were sometimes staged, however, to prompt audience interest and give the Masked Marvel time to rest. Plumadore was sometimes joined in these efforts by college wrestling teammate Isadore Demsky, who later went on to Hollywood acting stardom under the name of Kirk Douglas.
After finishing at St. Lawrence, Plumadore attended Albany Law School, graduating in 1943.
He entered the U.S. Navy as an ensign aboard LST 325 and saw action in North Africa, Sicily and Salerno, where he was twice wounded. He received a Purple Heart and was discharged as a lieutenant commander in 1945.
Following World War II, he returned to Saranac Lake and began to practice law, retiring in 1978.
He served as supervisor of the town of Harrietstown from 1950 and 1955 and again from 1958 to 1960.
In 1960, he was elected to the New York State Assembly, where he served until 1965. He was chairman of the Joint Legislative Committee on Professional Boxing, which probed the 1962 ring death of Benny "The Kid" Peret. Among the witnesses called to testify before the committee was boxer Cassius Clay, later known as Muhammed Ali.
He had been a member of the Elks, the Knights of Columbus, the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the American Legion.
Survivors include his wife of 61 years, May F. Plumadore of Saranac Lake; a daughter, Karen P. Rauss of Woods Hole, Mass.; two sons, Brett D. Plumadore of Castle Rock, Colo, and Jan H. Plumadore of Saranac Lake; four grandchildren: Olivia Rauss of Woods Hole, Mass., Taylor Plumadore of Castle Rock, Colo., and Margot and Dustin Plumadore of Saranac Lake.
There will be no calling hours. A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. Thursday at St. Bernard's Church in Saranac Lake. The Fortune-Keough Funeral Home of Saranac Lake is in charge of arrangements.
Memorial contributions may be made to the Saranac Lake High School Hall of Fame Scholarship Fund, c/o Mark Gilligan, athletic director, Saranac Lake High School, LaPan Highway, Saranac Lake, NY 12983.
