Florence Remley Zimmer

BERNE — Florence Remley Zimmer, a devoted wife, mother, and grandmother, and a talented craftswoman, died quietly at home, surrounded by her family, on Sunday, July 12, 2015. It was one week after her 103rd birthday.

Mrs. Zimmer and her husband, Howard, built a house on Route 443 in Berne in 1950, and she taught herself to braid rugs so she could cover the wood floors. Then she learned to hook rugs and quilt.

She was featured, at age 95, by the Altamont Community Caregivers in a quilt show.

She said, then, that she hated to waste anything, and had a reputation for making things from odds and ends, which people provided her with.

“I love to make something out of nothing,” she said. Her first rug was made from old clothes, and, after her husband died, in 1994, she made a rug from his wool suits.

She made clothes, too, for her three children, and the boy her family fostered for five years.

Being a mother in the country, she said, is how she really learned her crafts.

“You have to teach yourself to keep busy,” she said in 2007.

In her later years, she enjoyed car and bus trips with her husband, visiting many areas of the country.

She had many friends in the Hilltowns, including those in her church, senior citizens’ group, and hooking and quilting groups.

She is survived by her son, Howard, and his wife, Kristine; her daughters, Patricia Carman, and her husband, George, and Sandra Fuller; and her eight grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren, who were her greatest joys in life.

In addition to her husband, her grandson, David Carman, died before her.

The family wishes to thank the doctors, nurses, and staff of the Atria Guilderland and St. Peter’s Hospital and Hospice Inn for their loving care.

Services will be private and interment will be in the Gallupville Cemetery in Gallupville.

Arrangements are by the Fredendall Funeral Home in Altamont.

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