Elizabeth Griessler

East Berne - Elizabeth Griessler, 102, died on Tuesday May 25 2010 at Albany Medical Center. A beloved mother, grandmother, great grandmother, great-great-grandmother, and friend of all who met her, Elizabeth, or Betty as her friends called her, will be remembered for so many wonderful things, including her chicken soup, Hungarian noodles, cakes, pastries, and many other tasty recipes. Although she was born in Connecticut on August 14, 1907 to the late Steven and Elizabeth Schmotzer, the family moved back to their small home town in rural Hungary when she was a baby and remained there. Consequently, Elizabeth was raised in a small country home with a thatched roof, where everyone knew one another, and Budapest was a long train ride away. At 16, she boarded a ship with her older sister, Mary, and moved to New York City, not knowing any English. Upon their arrival, Mary and Elizabeth were soon welcomed by others in the New York City Hungarian community. She learned English well enough to get by and eventually became fluent, yet she never lost her heavy accent. While in NYC, she was employed as a seamstress, a skill which later became highly valued by her daughter and granddaughters who had the benefit of wedding dresses handmade by their grandmother. Elizabeth eventually met and married a Hungarian man who was also raised in "the old country," the late Frank Griessler on June 1, 1929, and moved to rural upstate New York. Frank and Elizabeth bought farm land in Delanson and her sister, Mary, and husband, Joe, bought the next door farm. Elizabeth and Frank raised their son, Bill, and daughter, Eleanor, on the farm. Both children married and had kids of their own. Elizabeth's grandchildren, nieces, and nephews still have countless memories of these side-by-side farms and the frequent family gatherings that occurred there. Just a few of those memories include rounding up the cows in the farthest pasture and having to carefully step around the plops along the way, finding another newborn kitten in the barn, eating plum dumplings made from the plums off the tree in the yard, holding contests to see who could eat the most of the endless palaczintas (Hungarian crepes) which Elizabeth made so quickly and so well. Elizabeth and Frank eventually sold the farm and moved to East Berne in 1970, where they would be just down the road from her daughter and family. After Frank's passing in 1976, Elizabeth loved to spend time with her friends playing pinocle at the Helderberg Senior Citizen Center. She is survived by son William (Frances) Griessler of Delanson; a daughter Eleanor (Paul) Giebitz of East Berne; eight grandchildren, Susan, Cathy, Paul, David, Nancy, Gail, Elaine and Christine; nine great grandchildren; three great great grandsons and a niece Maryann. A mass of Christian burial will be held at 11 AM at St. Bernadette's Roman Catholic Church, Berne, on Saturday May 29 2010 followed by an internment at the South Berne Cemetery. Friends may call prior to the Mass from 9 AM to 11 AM at the church. .