Hometown Oneonta - The Otesgo-Delaware Dispatch

Oneonta Alumni Will Honor Mary Hathaway At Reunion

Thursday, September 24, 2009

By JIM KEVLIN

Mary Colone, OHS ’58, was a majorette three of her four high school years, and she remembers them fondly.

In the blue-and-white uniform and white boots, she marched with the band at football games and staged dance performances at basketball games, including solos.
One highpoint was that day in 1957, when, led by the majorettes, the OHS band marched from Academy Street, up Main to Fox Hospital, where a corner on the addition was being laid.
It was a happy time, meeting friends between classes at “The Well,” the circular open stairwell that dropped from the third to ground floors.
Even the principal, Charles Belden, was “wonderful. Everybody loved him.”
After school, the kids would walk the block and a half to Bresee’s Health Bar, where sundaes and sodas were the order of many a day, another fond memory.
So it should come as no surprise that Mary Colone Hathaway – she met her husband, Duane, in ninth grade, when he transferred in from Bugbee School – should have gotten fully involved in the OHS Alumni Association when it formed a decade ago.
She has been particularly active on the membership committee, which has raised the rolls to 1,200 OHS grads.
Above and beyond the call of duty, she has tracked down dozens of alumni nationwide via the Internet.
“‘Are you a graduate of Oneonta High School in Oneonta, New York’,” she said she asks. “If it’s ‘yes,” fine. If it’s ‘no,’ some people still want to talk.”
On Friday, Oct. 2, the OHS Alumni Association will say thanks, honoring Mary Hathaway as 2009 Alumnus of the Year at the Alumni Gathering 7-10 p.m. at The Armory.
“I was VERY surprised,” she said in an interview the other day. “And I even told them: There are others who deserve it more than I do.
“But they said, ‘no, you’re taking it’.”
A daughter of Philip and Pauline (Sabatini) Colone, Mary was born and raised in Oneonta.
She and her husband married in 1961 – they are celebrating their 48th anniversary this month – and raised three daughters, Cheryl Thornton, who lives in Troy; Donna of Oneonta, and Lisa of Schuyler Lake.
Her husband spent his career at Custom Electronics, retiring as sales manager.
Mary worked for Dr. Peter Gregory, the dentist, for 16 years, until his retirement. Since, she has spent 15 years at Fox Hospital, now in medical records and print shop.

Labels: 09-25-09, Alumni, Front Page, Mary Hathaway, OHS