NORWICH – The passing of 100 years can often a somber occasion, but as Chenango Memorial Hospital gets ready to celebrate its centennial, so too does one of its residents who is jovially laughing her way to the triple-digit hallmark.
“Its easier to laugh than it is to cry,” chuckled Rosemary Ingraham, an affable resident of Chenango Memorial whose sense of humor and bright-eyed demeanor make it hard to believe she is only a few short weeks away from celebrating her 100 birthday.
“She has so many relatives, we have had to space out the celebration,” said Rosemary’s son Lee B. Ingraham, who pointed to his sister’s recent visit from South Carolina.
The youngest of six, Rosemary was born on Nov. 20, 1912, at her family’s farm in North Colesville, to parents Jennie and Jerry Hayes. “I sure have done some funny things, being brought up by men,” she said referring to how she was raised by her father and his farmhands after her mother passed away when she was only 15 years old.
“They would put me up in the silo when I was a kid and leave me to play by myself while they worked,” said Rosemary, who later joined her father and the farmhands in the fields once she was old enough. “I don’t know how they put up with me, but they were all really good to me.”
As a kid, Rosemary attended a one-room school house presided over by her older sister. “She would never call on me,” pouted Rosemary as she mockingly jutted out her bottom lip and described how her sister said she didn’t want to show favoritism. “I was worried everyone would think I was an old fool because I never got called on, even though I knew the answers.”
In 1930, shortly after her father passed, Rosemary decided to enroll herself in a Binghamton beauty school. A concerned aunt told her, “No woman would ever pay to have someone else do their hair – it is only a fad.”
“I wasn’t out looking for money so long as I could have enough to be happy,” said Rosemary. She described how the only thing she has ever bought on credit was a GE refrigerator which she owned for 50 years. “I never spent any money I didn’t have,” she proudly stated. Even so, her son became a banker for Chase Manhattan. When he did, Rosemary’s husband, Johnie Ingraham, decided to withdraw his money from a Binghamton bank and open an account at Chase to support his son. The bank teller was mortified and begged him not to because Rosemary and Johnie’s account was number 0007, the oldest existing account at the bank. Asked to at least leave enough money in the account to keep it open, Johnie stoutly refused, relayed Rosemary and Lee.
After beauty school, Rosemary moved to Greene and began work in Mrs. Case’s Beauty Parlor. It was during her stint under Mrs Case’s tutelage that Rosemary began courting a family friend and her future husband, Johnie, who picked her up for their first date in a horse-drawn carriage. They tied the knot on June 9, 1935, the same year Rosemary opened up her own beauty parlor on North Chenango Street next to the Episcopal Church in Greene.
“She kept her prices pretty much the same over the years,” said Lee, who foundly remembered his mother’s costumers fawning over him as a youth. “It probably would have cost the women more money to do their hair themselves than to come to her. Three of her costumers were regulars who came in every Thursday for 60 years,” he said.
Rosemary retired in 1992 at the age of 80, a year after her husband passed.
Currently, Rosemary lives at the Chenango Memorial Hospital Nursing Home. Aside from owning her own beauty parlor, she often moonlighted, doing the hair for the deceased at various funeral homes, kindling long-lasting friendships with undertakers and funeral home owners. “One time Charlie from the funeral home came to visit me at the nursing home,” regaled Rosemary. “When he left, my roommate asked me if he was my son and I said no, that was the undertaker! She got into a huff and said, ‘Well that was awfully presumptuous of him!’”
Rosemary is the mother of three – Joan McDonald of Easely, S.C., Lee B. Ingraham of Norwich, and Vern Ingraham of Port Crane. She also has eight grand-children, another eight great-grandchildren, and one great-great grandchild. Rosemary’s family asks anyone who is interested in congratulating her to send a birthday card addressed to her at the Chenango Memorial Hospital Nursing Home, 179 North Broad Street, Room 202, Norwich, N.Y. 13815, and if they feel so inclined, to enclose a single dollar bill which Rosemary wishes to give to the hospital’s activities department to buy the other residents Christmas gifts.
“It’s a hell of a price to pay for corn,” quipped Rosemary as her son dutifully escorted her back to her room.