OBITUARY
ARTHUR SANDERS
DEANSBORO: Arthur Hardie Sanders, 90, of Deansboro passed away Monday, January 19, 2015 at the Katherine Luther Home in Clinton.
He was born on January 24, 1924 in Deansboro, the only child of Hardie L. and Esther Skerritt Sanders, who operated a Texaco auto-repair shop. As a deathly sick youngster, Art survived 1932 only because his doctors tried some new sulfa antibiotics. In addition to Waterville schools, he attended Union College, Schenectady, and received a BA in Drama from Marietta College, Ohio. He enjoyed producing live musical theater and “summer stock”, and he helped build the new WNBK-TV studios for NBC in Cleveland, Ohio, as director of production facilities.
In 1948, Art and his parents founded what became “The World Famous Musical Museum”, where thousands of visitors cranked, pumped, studied and played their way through a large collection of musical automaton and pneumatic-mechanical curiosities. Art was an honorary trustee of the International Musical Box Collectors, and he helped start the worldwide Reed Organ Society. He married Elsie Marble Richter, RN, of Greene, NY in 1962, and she developed “Elsie’s Old Lamplighter Shop”.
Art enjoyed working with Oneida County Planning Department and concerned members of local government for more than forty years as chair of Marshall Town Planning Board. From 1950-1985, Art financed work crews that kept water flowing through antique pipes and valves of the 1896 private Water Company until a municipal district could be formed. He was a member of the United Church of Christ and a trustee of the Deansboro Cemetery.
Arthur was predeceased by his beloved wife Elsie, on July 20, 2014. He is survived by his devoted granddaughters, Amy Jacobson and Michael Normand of Millstone Township NJ, and Carla and Gary Brown of West Henrietta; great-grandchildren, Arthur, Emily, Jacob and Gavin Normand and Benjamin and David Brown.
Graveside services will be held at 10:30 am Saturday, August 1, 2015 in the Deansboro Cemetery, Deansboro, NY.
Arrangements have been entrusted to Burgess & Tedesco Funeral Home, 210 E. Main St., Waterville, NY.
To send a condolence and sign the Book of Memories online go to www.burgessandtedescofuneralhomes.com