18 Sep 1975: Ladye Cheney Looks Back At Her Full Life -"Where ever she is, people have fun." That's what friends say about Kay Cheney, who will be 89 years old Friday, September 19. And Mrs. Cheney herself will frequently say "I had a dandy time," after she returns to her apartment at 501 Pleasant Street, Manlius. She has, in fact, been having "Dandy times" in Fayetteville and Manlius for most of those 89 years, having been brought here shortly after her birth in New Orleans [error].
She still plays bridge, as she has since she was a child, when it was called Whist. And she continued to play golf until quite recently. An accident a few years ago caused the loss of vision in one eye, but that neither dampened her spirits nor slowed down her activity. She is a good cook and has always enjoyed entertaining.
This year she will share her birthday celebration with her daughter, Charlotte K. Crosby, who is visiting her from Cape Cod and Florida. A son, Steven Smith Cheney, better known as "Stub" lives on Brickyard Falls Road, Manlius, and he and his wife, Peg, and son, Steve, keep in close touch with Mrs. Cheney.
Her formal name, Ladye Katharine (pronounced Kath-a-reen) Smith Cheney carries one of the few reminders of her southern origin. Her mother's given name was Ladye Love, and the baby was named after her, and brought up to Fayetteville to grow up with her grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Platt Smith, who lived in the green brick house that over looks Limestone Plaza.
"Fayetteville was a delightful village." she recalls. A boardwalk ran from her grandparents home to the back entrance of the Grove Hotel (now the Fayetteville Inn) and it would be a real treat once in a while she was allowed to eat at the hotel. In upper Fayetteville, in a small columned house at the junction of Salt Springs and South Manlius Street, lived her cousins, Mildred and Rosaline Smith and their brothers. The sisters, who until two years ago spent summers in the family's Fayetteville home.
The most fun, though was to play at her grandfathers store on Genesee St. at the Fayetteville Canal feeder, now the site off the first Trust and Deposit Bank building. The store was a social center where men stood around the stove and visited. "If things got dull, Grandpa thought up something controversial to get things going again," Mrs. Cheney remarked with a twinkle.
"The Smiths were of comfortable circumstances." They had extra help to care for Kay, and always had a cook. During the week, there was dinner at noon, and Grandpa walked home from the store for his meal. "Maggie, bring me a piece of pie as big as my hand," he'd tell the clerk. He was an enormous man, and Grandma didn't like him eating very much.
They vacationed each year at Sarasota with a huge hotel, complete with palm trees in the lobby and other elegant appointments of the Victorian Era. It was a good life for a child, "But I did what I was told." There was no other way, recalls Mrs. Cheney.
Every evening after supper at 5:30, Grandpa would go to the Fayetteville Men's Club that met across from the hotel in rooms over the present fabric store. The men played cards, pool, or billiards, and you know, I think they gambled. It was a bitter, bitter thing in my grandmother's life to be left alone every night, she remarked. But Grandma Smith was a reader, so she filled the emptiness of her evenings by reading out aloud to Kay. Together, the finished the complete works of Dickens, but sometimes they would have to stop because the little girl got so excited.
When she became "a young lady" Mrs. Cheney attended Rye Seminary, "Which got me into Vassar without an exam." She majored in German and could speak it as well as she could English, and went to Germany between her sophomore and junior years. "But when we went to war with Germany, I put it right out of my life," and she has hardly used the language since. She graduated from Vassar in 1909 and a couple of years ago she went to Poughkeepsie for her 63rd Class Reunion. After a trip went following graduation, she returned to Fayetteville to meet Steve Cheney, whose family owned the foundry in what is now the Gray-Syracuse plant in Manlius, plus other machine shops in Kinloch and P&C locations.
"There were three Cheney brothers, and I got the best." Mrs. Cheney boasts. They were married in the fall and she packed "The loveliest trousseau" expecting to go to dances and other fine things on their honeymoon. Big Moose, in the Adirondacks proved more rustic then she expected, and they cut their honeymoon short to return to their home on Academy Street, Manlius that they called Red Gables. Today it is painted gray and owned by the Carpenter family. After raising a family and weathering the northern climate for 89 years, Mrs. Cheney remains true to her mother's name, "Ladye Love." [DeWitt News Times]
She still plays bridge, as she has since she was a child, when it was called Whist. And she continued to play golf until quite recently. An accident a few years ago caused the loss of vision in one eye, but that neither dampened her spirits nor slowed down her activity. She is a good cook and has always enjoyed entertaining.
This year she will share her birthday celebration with her daughter, Charlotte K. Crosby, who is visiting her from Cape Cod and Florida. A son, Steven Smith Cheney, better known as "Stub" lives on Brickyard Falls Road, Manlius, and he and his wife, Peg, and son, Steve, keep in close touch with Mrs. Cheney.
Her formal name, Ladye Katharine (pronounced Kath-a-reen) Smith Cheney carries one of the few reminders of her southern origin. Her mother's given name was Ladye Love, and the baby was named after her, and brought up to Fayetteville to grow up with her grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Platt Smith, who lived in the green brick house that over looks Limestone Plaza.
"Fayetteville was a delightful village." she recalls. A boardwalk ran from her grandparents home to the back entrance of the Grove Hotel (now the Fayetteville Inn) and it would be a real treat once in a while she was allowed to eat at the hotel. In upper Fayetteville, in a small columned house at the junction of Salt Springs and South Manlius Street, lived her cousins, Mildred and Rosaline Smith and their brothers. The sisters, who until two years ago spent summers in the family's Fayetteville home.
The most fun, though was to play at her grandfathers store on Genesee St. at the Fayetteville Canal feeder, now the site off the first Trust and Deposit Bank building. The store was a social center where men stood around the stove and visited. "If things got dull, Grandpa thought up something controversial to get things going again," Mrs. Cheney remarked with a twinkle.
"The Smiths were of comfortable circumstances." They had extra help to care for Kay, and always had a cook. During the week, there was dinner at noon, and Grandpa walked home from the store for his meal. "Maggie, bring me a piece of pie as big as my hand," he'd tell the clerk. He was an enormous man, and Grandma didn't like him eating very much.
They vacationed each year at Sarasota with a huge hotel, complete with palm trees in the lobby and other elegant appointments of the Victorian Era. It was a good life for a child, "But I did what I was told." There was no other way, recalls Mrs. Cheney.
Every evening after supper at 5:30, Grandpa would go to the Fayetteville Men's Club that met across from the hotel in rooms over the present fabric store. The men played cards, pool, or billiards, and you know, I think they gambled. It was a bitter, bitter thing in my grandmother's life to be left alone every night, she remarked. But Grandma Smith was a reader, so she filled the emptiness of her evenings by reading out aloud to Kay. Together, the finished the complete works of Dickens, but sometimes they would have to stop because the little girl got so excited.
When she became "a young lady" Mrs. Cheney attended Rye Seminary, "Which got me into Vassar without an exam." She majored in German and could speak it as well as she could English, and went to Germany between her sophomore and junior years. "But when we went to war with Germany, I put it right out of my life," and she has hardly used the language since. She graduated from Vassar in 1909 and a couple of years ago she went to Poughkeepsie for her 63rd Class Reunion. After a trip went following graduation, she returned to Fayetteville to meet Steve Cheney, whose family owned the foundry in what is now the Gray-Syracuse plant in Manlius, plus other machine shops in Kinloch and P&C locations.
"There were three Cheney brothers, and I got the best." Mrs. Cheney boasts. They were married in the fall and she packed "The loveliest trousseau" expecting to go to dances and other fine things on their honeymoon. Big Moose, in the Adirondacks proved more rustic then she expected, and they cut their honeymoon short to return to their home on Academy Street, Manlius that they called Red Gables. Today it is painted gray and owned by the Carpenter family. After raising a family and weathering the northern climate for 89 years, Mrs. Cheney remains true to her mother's name, "Ladye Love." [DeWitt News Times]
18 Sep 1975: Ladye Cheney Looks Back At Her Full Life -"Where ever she is, people have fun." That's what friends say about Kay Cheney, who will be 89 years old Friday, September 19. And Mrs. Cheney herself will frequently say "I had a dandy time," after she returns to her apartment at 501 Pleasant Street, Manlius. She has, in fact, been having "Dandy times" in Fayetteville and Manlius for most of those 89 years, having been brought here shortly after her birth in New Orleans [error].
She still plays bridge, as she has since she was a child, when it was called Whist. And she continued to play golf until quite recently. An accident a few years ago caused the loss of vision in one eye, but that neither dampened her spirits nor slowed down her activity. She is a good cook and has always enjoyed entertaining.
This year she will share her birthday celebration with her daughter, Charlotte K. Crosby, who is visiting her from Cape Cod and Florida. A son, Steven Smith Cheney, better known as "Stub" lives on Brickyard Falls Road, Manlius, and he and his wife, Peg, and son, Steve, keep in close touch with Mrs. Cheney.
Her formal name, Ladye Katharine (pronounced Kath-a-reen) Smith Cheney carries one of the few reminders of her southern origin. Her mother's given name was Ladye Love, and the baby was named after her, and brought up to Fayetteville to grow up with her grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Platt Smith, who lived in the green brick house that over looks Limestone Plaza.
"Fayetteville was a delightful village." she recalls. A boardwalk ran from her grandparents home to the back entrance of the Grove Hotel (now the Fayetteville Inn) and it would be a real treat once in a while she was allowed to eat at the hotel. In upper Fayetteville, in a small columned house at the junction of Salt Springs and South Manlius Street, lived her cousins, Mildred and Rosaline Smith and their brothers. The sisters, who until two years ago spent summers in the family's Fayetteville home.
The most fun, though was to play at her grandfathers store on Genesee St. at the Fayetteville Canal feeder, now the site off the first Trust and Deposit Bank building. The store was a social center where men stood around the stove and visited. "If things got dull, Grandpa thought up something controversial to get things going again," Mrs. Cheney remarked with a twinkle.
"The Smiths were of comfortable circumstances." They had extra help to care for Kay, and always had a cook. During the week, there was dinner at noon, and Grandpa walked home from the store for his meal. "Maggie, bring me a piece of pie as big as my hand," he'd tell the clerk. He was an enormous man, and Grandma didn't like him eating very much.
They vacationed each year at Sarasota with a huge hotel, complete with palm trees in the lobby and other elegant appointments of the Victorian Era. It was a good life for a child, "But I did what I was told." There was no other way, recalls Mrs. Cheney.
Every evening after supper at 5:30, Grandpa would go to the Fayetteville Men's Club that met across from the hotel in rooms over the present fabric store. The men played cards, pool, or billiards, and you know, I think they gambled. It was a bitter, bitter thing in my grandmother's life to be left alone every night, she remarked. But Grandma Smith was a reader, so she filled the emptiness of her evenings by reading out aloud to Kay. Together, the finished the complete works of Dickens, but sometimes they would have to stop because the little girl got so excited.
When she became "a young lady" Mrs. Cheney attended Rye Seminary, "Which got me into Vassar without an exam." She majored in German and could speak it as well as she could English, and went to Germany between her sophomore and junior years. "But when we went to war with Germany, I put it right out of my life," and she has hardly used the language since. She graduated from Vassar in 1909 and a couple of years ago she went to Poughkeepsie for her 63rd Class Reunion. After a trip went following graduation, she returned to Fayetteville to meet Steve Cheney, whose family owned the foundry in what is now the Gray-Syracuse plant in Manlius, plus other machine shops in Kinloch and P&C locations.
"There were three Cheney brothers, and I got the best." Mrs. Cheney boasts. They were married in the fall and she packed "The loveliest trousseau" expecting to go to dances and other fine things on their honeymoon. Big Moose, in the Adirondacks proved more rustic then she expected, and they cut their honeymoon short to return to their home on Academy Street, Manlius that they called Red Gables. Today it is painted gray and owned by the Carpenter family. After raising a family and weathering the northern climate for 89 years, Mrs. Cheney remains true to her mother's name, "Ladye Love." [DeWitt News Times]
She still plays bridge, as she has since she was a child, when it was called Whist. And she continued to play golf until quite recently. An accident a few years ago caused the loss of vision in one eye, but that neither dampened her spirits nor slowed down her activity. She is a good cook and has always enjoyed entertaining.
This year she will share her birthday celebration with her daughter, Charlotte K. Crosby, who is visiting her from Cape Cod and Florida. A son, Steven Smith Cheney, better known as "Stub" lives on Brickyard Falls Road, Manlius, and he and his wife, Peg, and son, Steve, keep in close touch with Mrs. Cheney.
Her formal name, Ladye Katharine (pronounced Kath-a-reen) Smith Cheney carries one of the few reminders of her southern origin. Her mother's given name was Ladye Love, and the baby was named after her, and brought up to Fayetteville to grow up with her grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Platt Smith, who lived in the green brick house that over looks Limestone Plaza.
"Fayetteville was a delightful village." she recalls. A boardwalk ran from her grandparents home to the back entrance of the Grove Hotel (now the Fayetteville Inn) and it would be a real treat once in a while she was allowed to eat at the hotel. In upper Fayetteville, in a small columned house at the junction of Salt Springs and South Manlius Street, lived her cousins, Mildred and Rosaline Smith and their brothers. The sisters, who until two years ago spent summers in the family's Fayetteville home.
The most fun, though was to play at her grandfathers store on Genesee St. at the Fayetteville Canal feeder, now the site off the first Trust and Deposit Bank building. The store was a social center where men stood around the stove and visited. "If things got dull, Grandpa thought up something controversial to get things going again," Mrs. Cheney remarked with a twinkle.
"The Smiths were of comfortable circumstances." They had extra help to care for Kay, and always had a cook. During the week, there was dinner at noon, and Grandpa walked home from the store for his meal. "Maggie, bring me a piece of pie as big as my hand," he'd tell the clerk. He was an enormous man, and Grandma didn't like him eating very much.
They vacationed each year at Sarasota with a huge hotel, complete with palm trees in the lobby and other elegant appointments of the Victorian Era. It was a good life for a child, "But I did what I was told." There was no other way, recalls Mrs. Cheney.
Every evening after supper at 5:30, Grandpa would go to the Fayetteville Men's Club that met across from the hotel in rooms over the present fabric store. The men played cards, pool, or billiards, and you know, I think they gambled. It was a bitter, bitter thing in my grandmother's life to be left alone every night, she remarked. But Grandma Smith was a reader, so she filled the emptiness of her evenings by reading out aloud to Kay. Together, the finished the complete works of Dickens, but sometimes they would have to stop because the little girl got so excited.
When she became "a young lady" Mrs. Cheney attended Rye Seminary, "Which got me into Vassar without an exam." She majored in German and could speak it as well as she could English, and went to Germany between her sophomore and junior years. "But when we went to war with Germany, I put it right out of my life," and she has hardly used the language since. She graduated from Vassar in 1909 and a couple of years ago she went to Poughkeepsie for her 63rd Class Reunion. After a trip went following graduation, she returned to Fayetteville to meet Steve Cheney, whose family owned the foundry in what is now the Gray-Syracuse plant in Manlius, plus other machine shops in Kinloch and P&C locations.
"There were three Cheney brothers, and I got the best." Mrs. Cheney boasts. They were married in the fall and she packed "The loveliest trousseau" expecting to go to dances and other fine things on their honeymoon. Big Moose, in the Adirondacks proved more rustic then she expected, and they cut their honeymoon short to return to their home on Academy Street, Manlius that they called Red Gables. Today it is painted gray and owned by the Carpenter family. After raising a family and weathering the northern climate for 89 years, Mrs. Cheney remains true to her mother's name, "Ladye Love." [DeWitt News Times]
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