Anne Elinor Bookhout, 68, Dies Suddenly

Anne Bookhout

Anne Bookhout, an Oneonta native who, with an Ivy League education and a nursing degree from Hartwick College,  launched a county-wide public health agency, died unexpectedly May 28 at her Brooktondale, N.Y. horse farm.  She was 68.

Bookhout was born March 23, 1948 in Oneonta, the fourth child of  Judge Richard J. and Florence Fieg Bookhout.  She attended Bugbee School and Oneonta public schools, graduating from Oneonta High School in 1966 and from Cornell University in 1970.  She worked in various capacities in the healthcare field in Oneonta after receiving a nursing degree from Hartwick College.

In 1984 she returned to Cornell to earn a master's in healthcare administration. Anne founded a key city-county public health agency, Visiting Nurse Service of Ithaca and Tompkins County, serving 20 years as chief executive officer.

Having owned and loved horses since the age of 12, she later founded Quickland Stables, a commercial equestrian riding and boarding facility at her residence in the Ithaca suburb of Brooktondale.  She operated the business until her death.

Anne is survived by her husband of 25 years, Robert Morgan, whom she assisted in running a commercial trucking fleet.

She is also survived by her son and daughter-in-law, Andrew and Denise Shedlock of Tallahassee, Fl., and their children Madeline and Ryan; a step-daughter and her husband, Janice Morgan-Solano and Nickie Solano of Edmonton, Ont., and their son Kyle.  Anne also leaves siblings Kathryn Bookhout Biggerstaff of Delmar, N.Y., William Bookhout of St. Augustine, Fl., Mary Bookhout Wolcott of St. Augustine, Fl. and Richard Bookhout, Jr. of Troutman, N.C.

She was preceded in death by her parents and a sister, Elizabeth Bookhout Boggs, of Oneonta.

Funeral services were held June 5 at Bangs Funeral Home in Ithaca.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in her memory to the Cornell School of Veterinary Medicine.

From the Mouths of Babes

Art Linkletter had it right:  "Kids Say the Darndest Things," and the kids in the Fieg family are no exception.  

Thanks to Jean Davie Fieg for the suggestion for this article.  Read on for a giggle or two.

Liz Bookhout, maybe four or five years old, came running into the house crying, "Katie isn't doing what she was told to do on the swing.  She's not going backwards and forwards, she's going crookwards!"                                                                                                                                                                                                          At Christmastime, Diana Fieg had either wax or the sound of reindeer bells in her ears when she sang, "Jesus our brother, kind of good...," and "... curly head dolls that toddle and coo, elephant spokes and kiddie cars too."

Her sister, your kindly old editor, sang, "Up on the rooftop, reindeer paws," though, since paws and pause are homophones, I was the only one surprised to find the latter word was the correct one, as I always had an image of reindeer hooves (why didn't I realize they didn't have paws?) pawing at the shingles.

And in keeping with the Christmas theme, 2-year-old Janet Holm McHenry, daughter of Bob and Doris Fieg Holm, used to sing, "Oh, you better watch out, better not cry, Better not pout, I'ma tellin you."  Who exactly were her ancestors...?

Stork Proclaims, "August is the Coolest Month"

Statistics show that more babies are born on a Tuesday during the month of August than on any other day of any other month of the year, so it is with bated breath that we await the month of August 2012 when the families of two Fieg cousins -- Tyler and Julia (nee Schwartz) McGonigal of Fort Montgomery, NY and Brian and Emily Fieg of Acworth, GA -- are expecting additions to their families.

The dates to hold out for are the 7th, 14th, 21st and 28th - all Tuesdays.  Let's not prove the statisticians wrong.

News came to your editor first that Tyler and Julia are expecting in early August.  We presume that Tyler's parents, Bobby and Mary McGonigal, who live near Rochester, will swing by the Fieg Family reunion in Cooperstown for about three minutes on their way to visit their first grandchild.  Tyler, 30,  is superintendent of the Rockland County Golf Course at Rockland County State Park in Rockland County, NY just north of New York City, and Julia is an 8th grade teacher in Ossining.  Tyler's brother, Kyle, is undoubtedly very eager to become known as Uncle Kyle; Mary reports, "We are over the moon!"

Close on the heels of this information came word of the pregnancy of Emily and Brian Fieg, expecting in mid-August.  They wrote in an e-mail to Brian's Uncle Steve, "Although we still have not yet heard the baby's heartbeat, we trust that he or she is healthy. We are almost to the end of our first trimester and are due mid August. We would appreciate continued prayers for our health and the baby's."  Great-uncle Greg Fieg asks that we also pray for a boy to carry on the Fieg name for yet another generation.

The two newest August births will carry on the tradition of birthdays in the eighth month, including Emilie Kestner, born on August 17, 1993 (a Tuesday).  Lothar Fieg Sr. was born on August 11, 1886 and his mother, Emilie Boehler Fieg,  on August 23, 1857.  Also born in August were Florence Fieg Bookhout (born in 1917 on August 11, her father's birthday), Lothar "Bud" Fieg Jr. (August 22, 1919), Liz Bookhout Boggs (August 24, 1944), Marsha Whiteside Adams (August 25, 1950), Robert "Bob" Whiteside II (August 27, 1957, a Tuesday), Max Fieg (Ed Fieg's son) and Collette Corkery (sorry I don't have the birthdates of the young'uns).  Anyone else to add to our list?

Real Snapshot from Fifty Years Ago

Kathy Boggs Clancy sent this charming photo of her parents, Dave and Liz Bookhout Boggs, on their wedding day in March 1961.  I just had to share it.