Long time Pawling resident Alice K. McAdams passed away peacefully Aug 13 surrounded by friends and family, many of whom had recently gathered to celebrate her 101st birthday.
Alice was one of six children, the daughter of Mary and Nishan Kilarjian of Bel Harbor Queens. Their home was on the beach where Alice spent many summers running a beach chair business with her sister Gertrude.
She attended Packer Collegiate and later enrolled in Fordham Law school but after 18 months she told her father she had decided to pursue her artistic passions at the Art Students League(ASL) in Manhattan. There she would study under the renowned teacher/painter Frank Vince Dumond. Dumond’s equally renowned successor, Frank Mason, was a classmate and life long friend to Alice. She later became a lifetime member of the ASL after having studied there for eight years. She continued to paint throughout her life in her studio at her home, the Glen Farm.
She was also a member of the National Arts Club for 75 years.
She met her future husband of 53 years, Walter J. McAdams, at a party organized by her sister. They spent the early part of their marriage living on Long Island where Alice worked tirelessly fundraising for the American Cancer Society. Later she met a woman on a ski trip who told her about a home for sale in what was then a very remote sounding Pawling, NY. She and her husband fell in love with the area and moved to Quaker Hill in the fall of 1967. They never left.
She loved gardening and flowers and was a former President of the Garden Club of Orange and Dutchess County, as well as active in the national Garden Club of America. She also spent the last 40 years overseeing and restoring the grounds and gardens of the Mills Mansion in Staatsburg, NY.
Alice is predeceased by her husband of 53 years Water J. McAdams Jr. and is survived by her three children Alice Roper and her husband Eric, Walter and his wife Kathy, and Mark McAdams, as well as her three grandchildren Eric Roper Jr, Mary Kate McAdams, and Patrick McAdams, and her great friend and aide Agi Denish.
A Mass of Christian Burial will be held Wednesday August 18th at 10:00 am at St John’s Church in Pawling. Burial will follow at the Quaker Hill Cemetery at Christ Church.
THE FAMILY IS ASKING THAT ALL ATTENDEES OF THE MEMORIAL SERVICE AT ST. JOHN’S WEAR A MASK INSIDE THE CHURCH.
In lieu of flowers please make donations in Alice’s memory to St. Johns Church.
Please refer any questions to:Horn & Thomes, Inc. Funeral Home, 83 East Main Street
Pawling, New York 12564 P: (845) 855-3550 F: (845) 855-0504
