Viola L. Christofferson

VIOLA L. CHRISTOFFERSON
LANSING - Viola L. Christofferson, 108, passed away July 13, 2008 at home after a brief illness. Her daughters, Sarah and Ethel were with her.
Born Viola Lorraine Newton on July 5, 1900, on Light Street in Baltimore, Maryland to John Spotswood and Sarah Ella (Purks) Newton, Viola was better known over the years by her family and friends as Bilo. Her father was a Merchant Marine, later working for the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad and her mother was a seamstress and owned a variety store. Among her neighbors on Light Street was George Herman Ruth for whom her mother would occasionally babysit and in later years, Viola would watch as he and the neighborhood boys would play craps on the doorsteps. In those early days she had no way of knowing that George Herman Ruth would grow up to be Babe Ruth, the legendary Yankees' baseball player. Bilo liked to tell people that she was older than electricity because she remembered as a child when the gas lights were lit on the streets of Baltimore; that she was older than airplanes, and automobiles. She had the unique experience of viewing the periodic Comet Halley, visible only every 76 years, twice; once while at a circus in Fredericksburg, Virginia in 1910 and again in 1986 from her home in Tompkins County.
The family moved from Baltimore to her father's farm "Lowood" in Sealston, Virginia. She went into nursing at Mary Washington Hospital and worked as a private duty nurse for wealthy families in the Warrenton, Virginia area where she met Sarah Delano, mother of Franklin D. Roosevelt, and James Doan, inventor of the Doan Kidney Pill. During World War I, Bilo worked at Camp Humphreys in Fredericksburg, Virginia as a seamstress, cutting buttons off of soldiers' uniforms.
It was in Virginia where she met her future husband, and married Harlan B. Christofferson on March 24, 1923. They spent their first night as a married couple at a relative's home in Falmouth, Virginia before beginning their journey the following day to Tompkins County where she would spend the remaining 85 years of her life.
Viola worked on her family farm where she raised her family. In later years she spent her time working in her flower beds, retiring in 2003 from her gardening. She had been assisted by her youngest daughter, Sarah, a constant companion and caregiver for over 60 years. She had recently celebrated her 108th birthday, alert and aware of her family and friends, and always remembered on her birthday by friends, Joan Powers, Linda Bush and Lorry Walrad.
Viola was preceded in death by her husband, Harlan B. Christofferson on May 16, 1945; her sister, Flossie Stevens; her brother, Robert Newton; and her three sons-in-law, Patrick McAndrews, Fay McKane, and Aubrey Cratsley. She is survived by her daughters, Ethel Cratsley, Nina McAndrews, and Sarah McKane; granddaughters, Cheryl Hall (Ken Davis), Holly (Fred) Barnett, and Tami Hall; great-grandchildren, Stephanie R. Hynes, Zachary Glenn, and Harlan B. Hynes; nieces, Jeanette Edwards, Estelle Riemer, and Sarah Newton; her nephew, Robert Newton; her sister-in-law, Ginny (Christofferson) Morse; her brother-in-law, George Christofferson; and several great and great-great-nieces and nephews.
In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the Lansing Volunteer Fire Department Rescue Squad, 80 Ridge Road, Lansing, NY 14882. A Memorial Service will be held at Pine Grove Cemetery, Lansing, NY, at a date to be announced. There are no calling hours. Lansing Funeral Home, 32 Auburn Road, is assisting the family.