COLUMBUS – Alzina Mary (Henderson) Larchar, 97, died Friday morning, March 6, 2009 at Hamilton Hospital after a short illness.
She was born Sept. 12, 1911, at her families’ farm in Morris, Otsego County, the second of the 11 children of Lester Joel Henderson and Cecil Georgie Sampson.
Alzina attended the Little Red Schoolhouse in South New Berlin until her high school years and then completed studies for her high school diploma from Morris. She graduated from New York University, magna cum laude, with a double major in history and mathematics in 1933. She taught school in New Berlin and then in Morrisville, where she married John Hopkins Larchar of Columbus on the 24th of November, 1937.
They moved to the Larchar Farm in Columbus, where they lived and faithfully served their community and neighbors for the remainder of their lives. Alzina was an active, busy wife and mother, substitute teaching in the New Berlin Central School, occasionally tutoring students at her dining room table to successfully pass the New York State Regents exams in history, and served for many years as a 4-H leader. She was a faithful member of the Columbus Community Ladies Aid Society and took many of the classes offered by the Cooperative Extension of Chenango County. Her interest in history and subsequent study of family history and genealogical research over many years, produced meticulously accurate family histories and wonderful contributions to the histories of the early settlers and their families of Columbus and the surrounding communities.
Surviving are her three children:, John Robert Larchar of Nashville, Tenn., Marianne Elizabeth Larchar of Rumney, N.H., and William Uri Larchar of Columbus; two sisters: Margaret (Lee) Madden of Charletville and Florence (Carl) Delameter of Oneonta; a sister-in-law, Christa (Joel) Henderson of South New Berlin; along with 17 grandchildren, 26 great-grandchildren and many nieces and nephews.
Funeral services will be held at the Norwich Chapel of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Cole Drive, Norwich, at 1 p.m. Saturday.
Viewing and calling hours will be Friday evening at the Dakin Funeral Home, New Berlin. from 6 to 9 p.m. and from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Saturday, prior to the funeral at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Norwich.