Louise G. Bristol, formerly of Skaneateles and Syracuse, died peacefully at 94, on Monday morning, Feb. 25, 2019, down at the Colonnades Retirement Community and Assisted Living facility in Charlottesville, Va. She was born in Syracuse on Highland Avenue to the late Dr. and Mrs. Albert A. Getman on May 9, 1924. Her older sister, Elizabeth G. Taylor, and two brothers, William D. Getman and Albert A. Getman, predeceased her.
She was married to Douglas P. Bates, Sr., who she knew growing up in Syracuse during her adolescence years, from September of 1946, until his death in March of 1962. She then met and remarried her second husband, John W. Bristol, down in New Jersey, in August of 1963, until his death, 25 years ago, in 1994.
Louise Bristol, more affectionately known to family, relatives and close friends, as “Wesa,” spent most of her summers on Skaneateles Lake on East Lake Road (Route 41) at “The Colony,” where the Getmans had a summer cottage built several years prior to Wesa’s birth in 1924. After Wesa’s mother, Louise D. Getman, died in the fall of 1975, Wesa was fortunate to inherit her mother’s cottage at “The Colony,” and continued to look forward to enjoying many summers with family, relatives and friends, afterwards. However, as Wesa’s physical health started to decline, she could no longer spend those special and precious summers at Skaneateles. While she was enjoying her summers at Skaneateles, she loved playing tennis on “The Colony’s” tennis court, shared by all seven families living there, during the summer months. She also loved to garden, and faithfully and beautifully kept the gardens up, just as her mother did.
Wesa, just like her sister Elizabeth (Tibby), attended the Master’s School in Dobbs Ferry (Westchester County), N.Y., and graduated in 1941. She also attended Smith College in Northampton, Mass., and graduated from there in 1945.
She then married her first husband, Douglas P. Bates in 1946, and they moved to Northern New Jersey, where Doug was offered a job as engineering manager for Exxon/Esso’s “Bayway” refinery in Linden, NJ, on the Arthur Kull River, across from Staten Island. She was both fortunate and blessed to know close friends in Northern New Jersey, who were both high school and college friends as well.
Wesa and Doug had four children, three sons and a daughter. After Doug died in 1962, and she remarried John Bristol in 1963, John’s two daughters from his previous marriage also joined our family.
John was self-employed as a financial advisor and investment counselor, managing endowment funds and portfolios for private schools, colleges and universities, including both Princeton and Syracuse universities. Both Wesa and John were avid supporters especially of the Hill Top Preparatory School, on Philadelphia’s main line in Rosemont (Bryn Mawr), Pa, for learning disabled/challenged students, which their third son, William (Bill) attended for two years of Post-High school during the early 1970s.
Wesa was involved with fundraising for different charities such as the American Red Cross, the Heart Association, the Somerset Hills Community Chest/United Fund and Morristown Medical Center (formerly Morristown Memorial Hospital) in Morristown, NJ, where her youngest son, William (Bill) and daughter, Louise were born in the 1950s.
As mentioned earlier, Wesa loved to play tennis and garden. She also loved fishing, playing bridge with family, relatives and friends, loved the symphony orchestra and, most of all, loved to watercolor paint. She had exhibits of her work on display in local public libraries, lobbies and entrance hallways of corporate offices and headquarters in Northern New Jersey, and also even in Skaneateles at the Muggleton Gallery, by the Sherwood Inn.
Wesa is also predeceased by her oldest son, Douglas P. Bates, Jr., who passed away in May of 2015, and her twin grandson, Ian Hooker Bates, who passed away in August of 1998. She is survived by her two sons, Carlton A. Bates, and William S. Bates, her daughter, Louise B. Satterfield, and her two stepdaughters, Nancy B. Homer and Barbara B. Kinnell. She is survived by five grandchildren, Rufus M. Bates, Larissa C. Bates, Lucas Bates, Calvin Satterfield IV and Lila Satterfield. She also has been blessed with two great-grandchildren, Pilar and Sebastian Bates. She also has several step grandchildren and step great grandchildren, and nieces and nephews, as well.
Contributions in Wesa’s memory can and should be made to the Hill Top Preparatory School, 737 South Ithan Ave., Bryn Mawr, PA 19010.
Wesa’s funeral service and burial will be held during Father’s Day weekend in June at the Aurora United Ministry Church in Aurora, N.Y., at Hooker’s Memorial Garden, built by Doug and Gracie Bates in Hooker’s memory. The exact date and time for Wesa’s funeral service and burial has not yet been decided, as it will be a family gathering and reunion for all of Wesa’s family, relatives and friends to be able to pay their respect to her, most of all.
