“I’d like the memory of me to be a happy one. I’d like to leave an afterglow of smiles when life is done. I’d like to leave an echo whispering softly down the ways, of happy times and laughing times and bright and sunny days. I’d like the tears of those who grieve, to dry before the sun of happy memories that I leave when life is done.”

NORWICH – Ella E. Pearsall, a 20-year resident of the Chenango Valley Home, Norwich, passed away early Friday morning, April 20, 2007. She turned 104 years old last December.
Born at home in the Town of Butternuts on Dec. 8, 1902, the daughter of Alan and Maude (Harris) Cope, Ella lived her entire life in this area. She was a 1920 graduate of the Mt. Upton school and longed to go to college to study drama, but didn’t pursue it because it would have been a hardship to her family. On May 7, 1921, at the White Store Church, she married Graydon Pearsall who would be her husband for over 70 years before he passed away on Jan. 5, 1992. They lived on the White Store Road for a time, while Graydon was in charge of maintenance at the White Store Church and Evergreen Cemetery, and Ella worked side by side with him for over 27 years, cutting the brush and grass with sheep shears. She felt that she was a part of the cemetery and attributed her longevity, in part, to the hard work and many hours spent there. Ella and Graydon lived on Eaton Ave. in the City of Norwich for some years, then became the first couple to take up residence at the Chenango Valley Home. Ella found comfort in reading her Bible, especially the psalms, and enjoyed doing dramatic readings. In 1948, at the South New Berlin Central School, she fulfilled her dream of being on stage by participating in a minstrel show. In later years, Ella and Graydon drove to Florida to winter with their son and his family. A peppy lady with a perpetual smile, Ella enjoyed playing bingo and cooking, but mostly she loved to talk with people about current events and global affairs, and to reminisce about the way things had been, from the horse and buggy she drove to school to the invention of the Internet and creation of the space station.
Ella is survived by her children, Jean P. Silvernail of Sidney and Earl Pearsall and wife Beverly of Melbourne, Fla.; by her grandchildren: Edward Pearsall and wife Holly of Newport, N.Y., Bonnie S. Canfield of Sidney, Robert B. Silvernail and wife Susan of Bainbridge, and Randall Pearsall of Norcross, Ga.; by great grandchildren: Aaron Pearsall of Lowell, Mass., Erin and Jeremy Barnett of Oak Harbor, Wash., and Ashley Pearsall of Newport; by many nieces and nephews, and her very special grandnephews, Bain Coffman of Staten Island and Chad Coffman of Dallas, Texas.
A graveside service for Ella will be held at 10 a.m. on Wednesday from the Evergreen Cemetery at White Store. The Rev. Kenneth Simpson will officiate. There will be no calling hours.
Those wishing to remember Ella with a memorial contribution are asked to send it to The Evergreen Cemetery Association, Inc., c/o Barbara VanderBunt, 121 County Rd. 3A, Greene, NY 13778; or to Hospice and Palliative Care of Chenango Co., 21 Hayes St., Norwich, NY 13815.