Merton Clifford O'Donnell

MINEVILLE Merton Clifford O'Donnell, died Sunday, Dec. 2, 2007. He was 80 years old. Born on April 29, 1927, VERY PREMATURELY, in West Charleston, Vt., (weighing only one and a half pounds), his first few months of life were spent in a shoebox (near the open oven door, swaddled by cotton batting and strips of flannel sheets) while fighting for his life and eating by eyedropper. He was the first-born son of Merton (Murdick) "Slim" O'Donnell and Doris Crowe (both having predeceased him). His other siblings were/are Florence "Pawnee" (infant deceased at nine months of age from Lombard Pneumonia), Olga Lapell of North Creek, Douglas of Corinth and Rita Perry of Virginia she also predeceased him last year. During his final days, he was under hospice care and "crossed over" to his new life, (finally free of pain), while at home in Grover Hills. All his family members (and those having grown up with his now adult children) had their chance to talk, visit, sing, play guitar and sit with him prior to his crossing over. He was surrounded in his final hours by his wife, brother and sisters, children, some of his grandchildren and his very first great-grandson. He joked about the fact that he had met his first great-grandson before his wife did, and that "tickled him" immensely ("I got one over on your mom"). He was a very proud brother, dad, grandpa and great-grandpa. Family was EVERYTHING to him. Of all the pets his children brought home, his favorite ("such a good little dog"), had to have been his first grandson's dog (Cricket), and she was probably waiting for him, leash in mouth, offering her paw, during his final moments. He was a 1945 graduate of Newcomb, N.Y. High School, worked for National Lead, Ford Motor Company (assembly line) in Detroit, Mich., and was a dye house helper for Consolidated Tobacco (Connecticut). It was when he was working for Consolidated Tobacco that he met and married his future wife, Jeannette Osowiski, on Nov. 12, 1954. He also worked at Pratt and Whitney Aircraft and Pioneer Steel Ball, Unionville, Conn. He returned with his family to the mines and this area in October of 1967. He continued to work the mines until their closure in the early 1970s. He made medical history as he was one of the first single-bypass operation patients performed in Burlington, Vt., living well after past patients of that type of surgery would have even just 10 years earlier. He finished his working career at BOCES, maintenance, and then Essex Industries, sheltered workshop, until his retirement at age 65. He then became "The Oldest Paperboy" in Mineville, delivering the Press-Republican newspaper on many an early morning. He is survived by his brother and sister, Doug O'Donnell and his wife, Donna, and Olga Lapell; wife of over 53 years, Jeanette O'Donnell of Horace Nye Nursing Home in Elizabethtown, N.Y.; a son, Michael of Albany; a daughter, Mary Gutreuter of Crown Point; a daughter, Elizabeth Austin of Mineville; a daughter, Tina Mount of Yardley, Pa.; a son, James of Schuyler Falls; a son, John of Yardley, Pa; a daughter, Billie Jo of Port Henry; his grandchildren: Jean-Miguel Gutreuter, Kristen and Amy Mount, Brooke, Morgan, Paige and Reagan O'Donnell, Casey Collins, Karsyn O'Donnell, Conner Rodriguez and Jared Firlik; his first great-grandson, Spencer RBI Hill; and, of course, many friends and extended family members: Traci Tigar, Bill Austin, Heidi Ashline, Tom Manley, Tom Rodriguez, Jim Firlik, Wes Larmour, Joel Mount, Bob Perry, Cheryl Hill and many adults who were "Just Like One of The Kids" (go ahead and toss-em in the mix, one more won't make any difference) over the years. A public memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 15, 2007, at the Mount Moriah Presbyterian Church in Port Henry. Interment of his cremated remains will be in the spring at the convenience of the family members. The date will be announced and will appear as the time draws near. Arrangements are being made through Harland Funeral Home, 4279 Main St., Port Henry, N.Y.