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Do you know that man you would always see taking long walks in our neighborhood over the years and clocking them for mileage? That was no man - that was The Great Lieberman: Master of Animation. Jerry passed away on February 24, 2017 from complications due to leukemia (CLL).

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Palisadian Betty Batchelder passed away on January 27, 2017 after a fall at home. She spent her last few days at peace in the Joe Raso Hospice Center in New City, New York. Betty was born Grace Elizabeth Batchelder in 1926 and was named after her mother. She grew up in Orange, New Jersey, but at the age of 11 her father died suddenly, and she and her two siblings were split up among family members and foster homes.

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Charles Hirsch “Chuck” Barris, was born in Philadelphia in 1929, and achieved enormous success as the creator of the hit game shows The Dating Game, The Newlywed Game and The Gong Show. He was also an accomplished singer/songwriter, and six-time bestselling author. He passed away on March 22 due to natural causes. He was 87, and our neighbor of 14 years.

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Ward Cotthaus, of Palisades and Highland Mills in New York, passed away on February 20, 2017. He was in hospice care in Stuart, Florida, after a difficult battle with Parkinson’s disease. He is survived by his sons, Skip and Glenn, and by his significant other, Arvinda Moore. He also has two nephews in Rockland county, Clayton and Billy. Arvinda, Skip and Glenn were by his side.

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Elaine Landriau died peacefully at home on April 1, 2017 in Lake Oswego, Oregon, where she lived with her daughter Denise and son-in-law Greg. She was 89 years old.

Elaine was born in Manhattan in 1928 to her French-American mother, Blanche, and Swiss father Leon Ledermann. She grew up in Washington Heights and attended French Sunday School downtown before moving to Auburndale, Queens and attending Bayside High School. Elaine was the first member of her family to attend college, and at 20 years old she graduated from Queens College with a B.S. in math.

It’s always a good laugh when asked which college I’m going to, especially when standing next to two particular friends. I’m often the third of the bunch to be asked where I go, and the responses are always the same, Columbia, NYU, RCC… It’s amusing because the person who asks, which can be anyone of any demographic, whether young, old, rich or poor, always replies with the same three phrases: “That’s amazing,” “Wow,” “Congratulations” and “Oh.”

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A PALISADIAN for over 70 years, Jeanette was born in Syracuse and spent her childhood in Brooklyn Heights where she attended the Friends Elementary School and then Erasmus HS where she met Herbert Kellogg, her future husband and close companion for 75+ years. While he was attending Columbia College and she was at Barnard, they married and shortly thereafter “discovered” the rundown old Gesner house on Closter Road. Here they spent their lives together turning the old house into a gracious home where they raised their four children.

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On November 8, 2016, long-time Palisades resident Lee Ann Guttman (nee Sterling) passed away peacefully at her home at 10 Indian Hill Lane under the care of her family and Hospice of Rockland. Born in Manhattan on March 26, 1923, her passing marks the end of an era in the history of Palisades. Lee was the last surviving resident among the original group of a dozen families that built and named Indian Hill Lane and Horne Tooke Road in 1955.

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RODNEY LEWIS SMITH, a prominent photographer whose whimsical work invited comparisons to that of the Belgian surrealist René Magritte’s died on December 5 at his home in Snedens Landing. He was 68.

While people and businesses come and go in Palisades, Jeanne DiMeglio, the owner of Floral Expressions, has lived her entire life in the same house on Iroquois Avenue. To trace the roots of her local flower business, one has to go back in time to Ellis Island. Her four grandparents, journeying to America at young ages from different parts of the world, would eventually cross paths and end up building a flower business that would span three generations.

Arthur Firestone passed away on June 2, 2016. He was a United States Air Force Veteran of the Korean War and belonged to the American Legion Perry Post in Sparkill for over 55 years. A graduate of Pace University, he was a controller and accountant in New York City for many corporations.

Johanna Lo, 78, of Palisades, N.Y., passed away unexpectedly on Friday, May 13, from injuries sustained in an automobile accident.

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Carol Stewart fell for her house in Palisades the first time she saw it. “I thought it was charming; when it came up for sale in 2003, I bought it.” The house started life as a country store and at one point or another was a tavern, printing shop, grain feed store, butcher shop, post office, and an ice cream shop. It wasn’t until around 1970 that it was converted to a private home.

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Herbert H. Kellogg of Palisades passed away on January 16 at the age of 95. He was born in Brooklyn in 1920 where he grew up and where as a teenager at Erasmus High School he met his future wife Jeanette Halstead. They were married in their senior year of college. In 1947 they purchased the Nicholas Gesner house on Closter Road where they lived until 2014 when they moved to Sunrise Senior Living in Old Tappan, New Jersey.

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Arnold Finck, Arn to his friends and family, was born in Jersey City, New Jersey in 1920 and grew up in Grand View, New York. He spent his childhood exploring the Hudson River with his younger brother, Howard. The two Finck boys along with several friends—the self-named River Rats—would fish and iceskate on the river. They even built their own canvas canoe.

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Palisadian Lincoln Colwell, 54, arborist, rower with Piermont Rowing Club, devout churchgoer, stalwart member of “the chatty bass section” in at least two different Episcopal church choirs, “wry, rebellious dude” as an adolescent and a man known for his passionate enthusiasm, his joyful spirit, intelligence, wit, kindness and personal warmth was born in Nyack in 1961 and grew up in Grandview-On- Hudson. He spent all his life in Rockland County where he was active and influential in his chosen spheres.

I had never heard of the Clarkstown Country Club when a friend recently showed me the book LIFE at the Clarkstown Country Club, Nyack 1935 which told the fascinating story of Dr. Pierre Bernard and his so-called country club. The first to introduce yoga and the philosophy of tantra to America, this complex man was seen by some as a charlatan and by others as a pioneer, but millions knew him simply by his dubious tabloid title, Oom the Omnipotent.

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What can be better than being successful at something you love? That’s the happy fate of entertainment lawyer Loren Plotkin, managing partner for Levin Plotkin & Menin, a New York based law firm dealing exclusively with artists and the people who do business with artists.

Thane Asch and Suki
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Thane Asch of Tappan, New York died peacefully on Monday, January 18, at home surrounded by his family. He was 88 years old. He was a retired Radiologist and Columbia Medical College educator. A dedicated husband, father and medical practitioner, he devoted his final years to his family and his passions for botany, boating, cooking and bird watching. He moved to Snedens Landing with his family in 1966 and lived there for 40 years. In 2007, he and his wife moved to Tappan, NY.

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Longtime Palisades resident Roger Hooker passed away on December 8, at 74. He served as Deputy Secretary to Governor Nelson Rockefeller and Assistant Secretary to the U.S. Department of Transportation under the Ford administration. Before returning to the private practice of law, Roger was General Counsel to the U.S. arm of Grand Metropolitan, PLC, as well as its predecessor, Liggett Group, Inc. An ardent supporter of the arts, Roger sat on the boards of the American Dance Festival, the Rockland Center for the Arts and the Baryshnikov Arts Center. A devoted father and husband, Roger is sorely missed by wife Joan, daughters Kate and Sarah and brother Henry. He was a true friend to literally hundreds. 10964 honors his life with a sampling of thoughts and remembrances from friends, neighbors and colleagues.