Louise Mary (Strever) Blass, 92, passed away May 27, 2015, at the Whittier Rehabilitation and Nursing Center in Ghent where she had resided for a number of years.  Her daughter and grandsons were at her bedside in her last days to comfort her until she passed. Funeral services were held at the French, Gifford, Preiter, Blasl Funeral Home, 25 Railroad Avenue, Chatham, on May 30th.  Saturday's calling hours were12:00 p.m. until 2:00 p.m..  Jason Wolczanski, Lay Leader at the Sauquoit Valley United Methodist Church, and Louise's grandson officiated the 2:00 p.m. service for his grandmother.  Following the service, Mrs. Blass was interred at the Chatham Rural Cemetery. Louise Mary Strever came into this world at the end of a horse-drawn wagon ride from the Strever homestead to the Angell residence on Angell Hill Road , the ancestral home of her mother.  Helen Margaret (Sipperly) Strever, her mother, descended from Thomas Angell who accompanied Roger Williams to settle Providence, Rhode Island.  Delmer Charles Strever, the third son in his family, inherited his father's Spencertown farm.   Their family is descended from an 18th century German Palantine immigrant who settled in Ancram, New York.  Her personality reflected this heritage, industrious and steadfastly determined with just the right amount of good humor thrown in. Louise was the eldest child of three.  Her brother, Roy Delmer Strever, and sister, Catherine (Kitty) Helen (Strever) Ploss, would both predecease her.  She fondly recalled life on the farm, when her paternal grandfather would dance her around the dining room singing about the wall paintings.  When the farm had to be sold, she worried about the welfare of the family's faithful team of horses.   Delmer's near fatal accident when the steam power sprayer exploded in the orchard, caused the family to have to give up the farm while he recuperated for months.  It was then that the family moved to Chatham, to an apartment on Moore Avenue. During her high school years, the family moved to their Church Street home and she met and began dating Ralph Blass.  World War II was looming as Louise neared graduation. Before he was drafted, Louise and Ralph quietly became engaged.  In 1943, her yearbook description read, "never idle a moment, but thrifty and thoughtful of others." She began working in Drumm's Jewelry Store on Main Street after graduation.  It began a lifelong love of jewelry.  With her "free" time she would go to Hudson and volunteer to sew stripes on army uniforms and cut out pictures of the war news and tack them to the attic walls in her house, especially maps of the Pacific Theater.  Then war ended. On February 16, 1946, in the home on Church Street where, coincidentally, Ralph had been born, and Louise still lived, they had their wedding reception.  It had been a long courtship with several years interrupted by war.  Louise gave birth to two children.  The first baby girl, Nancy Jean, is buried in Chatham Rural Cemetery having lived only three days.   Their second daughter, Gail Catherine, was a healthy baby born in 1950.   Ralph had returned to work on the railroad and Louise set about making a house a home.  Home meant several different locations, one in White Plains, as Ralph's job assignments shifted.  By 1955, after at least four different residences, they had a home on Shore Road in the village.  She and her sister co-ran a shop on Central Square. The Town and Country Dress Shop required many trips to New York City to replenish inventory.  To care for a husband and child and run the business was too much of an investment in time.  Louise chose to work at a dress factory on River Street instead.  In 1962 they rented out their house and moved down the line. Louise worked as a waitress and then in a manufacturing plant.  Part time housekeeping at the home of a DuPont family was also in her work history.  When they returned to Chatham in 1968 to the Shore Road home, Louise started to do volunteer work.  There was the Columbia Memorial Hospital Auxiliary, the American Legion Post 42 Auxiliary where she served as President for an interim, and Meals on Wheels delivery volunteer. Also, she would cook full breakfasts for the rail crew that Ralph would bring home regularly. Then, for fun, she did projects with the Home Bureau, crocheted, and made quilts and numerous other crafts. She very much enjoyed using the annual membership to the MacHaydn Theatre. She even tried snowmobiling! As well as a volunteer, traveler, homemaker, hostess, cook, fund-raiser, doting mother and attentive wife, Louise was a seamstress who made doll clothes as well as Gail's dance and Halloween costumes.  She also gave her daughter an appreciation for history. The lady also had a talent for collecting family heirlooms.  The attic, dresser drawers, kitchen shelves, every place had an item or photograph for which there was a story that she always shared.  That is how her daughter learned to love history, especially that of Chatham. Gail had married and made Louise and Ralph grandparents in 1979 and again in 1982.  Louise was a devoted grandmother with "goody bags" ready for each boy on every visit.  Every summer they enjoyed months at their camp on Kinderhook Lake especially now that they had the boys.  It had been their home base close to family while shifting from one address to another.  Ralph and his buddies put it together in 1953 from native lumber, pallets, and found wood. And when friends dropped by from Chatham or elsewhere-spontaneous parties appeared as Louise whipped up some treats or cooked up a full meal.  Louise frequently took bus trips with the local Senior Citizens group.  Starting in the 1960's the couple enjoyed Florida trips annually.  Louise had a lingering to see even more of the world.  She cruised to Bermuda with Gail and her grandsons and later made the 25th Anniversary Cruise aboard the QE2 with her daughter.  And when Ralph suddenly passed away in 1993, she was determined to continue the Florida vacation.  That was a yearly ritual until walking became a problem.  Hospitalization and other health problems followed until she was unable to safely live in her home. "If I have to go to a nursing home, it has to be on the land where I picked corn on the cob."  She was referring to the ancestral Ostrander farm on Route 66 and what is now Whittier.   She made the best of her situation being the raffle person to raise money for activities, performing in the talent shows telling jokes about her sister's craziness, and even mending other residents' clothes.  While there her hip broke simply by standing up.  She went through surgery and physical therapy at Whittier Rehabilitation Center where she remained.  Her death was mourned by many of the staff members who had known her a decade or more. She is survived by her daughter Gail Catherine (Blass) Wolczanski, son-in-law Gary, grandsons Jason and Jarrad, and great-grandchildren, Amelia and Samuel.   A niece, Cathy Louise (Ploss) Trevett lives in Florida.  In remembrance of Louise M. Blass, her daughter asked that a donation be given to preserve the history of Chatham through the efforts of the Chatham Village Historical Society.  Mrs. Wolczanski, president of the society, says that her mother was a constant source of encouragement in that regard.