By Kate Hill
Staff Writer
On May 21, Cazenovia native Ina Cramer turned 100 years old.
Born to George and Betty Blodgett, Cramer was raised on Cazenovia Lake.
Her father served as the caretaker of the Kennard Estate on East Lake Road and her mother was a seamstress.
“She was born in 1920, but she did not suffer much hardship through the Great Depression as her father was the caretaker of [an estate] about where the Willow Bank Yacht Club is today,” said Cramer’s granddaughter Caira Cramer-Walter. “Because her father was [the] caretaker, she got to live in a modest house on the property. She is so proud to say she grew up on [Cazenovia Lake]. She ice skated on the lake in the winter and swam the lake all summer.”
According to Cramer’s son Mark, his mother inherited a number of home movies filmed by Kennard during the 1930s and 1940s.
One of the videos documents ice harvesting on the lake.
“The Kennards owned the Willow Bank Yacht Club, so [a lot of the movies have] to do with the lake and the park down there,” Mark said.
The footage was eventually transferred to a CD and donated to the Cazenovia Public Library.
Cramer graduated from Cazenovia High School with perfect attendance from kindergarten through 12th grade.
“She was only tardy one day when she decided to climb a tree while walking to school,” said Cramer-Walter. “She fell and broke her arm, but her parents walked her to the doctor who lived near them, had him set her arm and then sent her right to school.”
According to Cramer, she was one of only 32 students in her graduating class.
In 1942, she married DeForest Cramer with a reception at the Lincklaen House. The couple moved to Morrisville, where she had two sons (Jack and Mark) and served as secretary to the Morrisville High School principal.
In 1993, the Cramers relocated to Sherrill to be closer to their son Mark and his family.
DeForest passed away nine years later at the age of 80.
Cramer currently resides in an apartment at Noyes Manor in Sherrill.
“She is still independent, can carry on a lovely conversation and still has a remarkable memory even though she complains that [it] isn’t what it used to be,” said Cramer-Walter.
Throughout the years, Cramer has witnessed her hometown transform in a number of ways.
“When I take her for a drive, she will say ‘Oh, this wasn’t there or that wasn’t there,’” said Mark. “I hear her comment a lot about how much the college has changed and about the changes to the high school.”
Cramer’s childhood memories also include enjoying ice cream from a shop on Lincklaen Street across from the theater; purchasing dresses at a store near the Methodist Church; and her father buying men’s clothing at McLaughlin’s on Albany Street.
“Since my mother was a seamstress, she sewed [most] of my clothes,” Cramer said.
According to Mark, the most notable change to Cazenovia throughout his mother’s lifetime has been the development of Route 20.
“She’ll comment about [everything] up by Trush [Business Park]; all of that stuff wasn’t there,” Mark said. “Everything used to be downtown. There used to be a hardware store on the main block. Everybody had gardens back then, so you didn’t have big grocery stores. Obviously, there wasn’t that whole plaza where Tops is now.”
Although Cramer has not resided in Cazenovia for many years, her granddaughter has lived in town since 2002.
“My husband was the one who wanted to move to Cazenovia,” Cramer-Walter said. “His roommate was from Caz, so he had been to town several times . . . and just loved [it]. He had no trouble convincing me to move because I had spent several day trips here visiting family members and just hanging out in the village . . . I knew that it would be a great place to raise a family since my grandmother grew up here and had so many fond memories. [She] was tickled pink that we moved to Caz and was so excited to continue to share her memories of Albany Street and the lake. Now she tells the stories to my kids. It’s pretty special that my kids will graduate from the same high school as my grandmother.”
In celebration of her grandmother’s 100th birthday, Cramer-Walter and her family organized a socially distanced parade.
Originally, the family planned to throw a party at the Nothing Fancy restaurant in Vernon.
“That has been canceled,” Cramer-Walter said on May 19. “The plan now is that Thursday evening a Sherrill fire truck and a Sherrill police car will lead my mom/dad, brother’s family, and my family in a parade of cars to Noyes Manor. She will be waiting out front. My mom will pass out cupcakes and gelato cups to the family members and we will eat them while socially distancing. I bought a banner to decorate my dad’s truck and a sash for my grandmother to wear that says ‘100 and fabulous.’ Sadly, there will be no hugs due to keeping with the rules of social distancing. Also, my sister lives in London and she had plane tickets to fly home for the birthday celebration, but of course her flight was cancelled weeks ago. We will FaceTime with her, so she can celebrate with us virtually.”
