Obituary of Jean O'Connor Fuller

Jean O'Connor Fuller died on September 26, 2014 after a long illness. She was 82 years old. Born in Carlsbad, New Mexico, she was the daughter of George Casner O’Connor and Lu Hughes O’Connor. Mrs. Fuller graduated from Carlton College, Northfield, Minnesota, with a degree in English. She then returned to New Mexico where she was women’s page editor of the “Carlsbad Current-Argus.” After two years, she went to New York City and worked as an editorial assistant at Conde Nast Corporation in the Shopping Around column at “House & Garden” and in the promotion department at “Glamour.” Leaving there for a general reporting position in the Orange, New Jersey, office of the “Newark Evening News,” she covered the New Jersey towns of South Orange, Maplewood and Livingston. Her next position was a copywriter at MacLaren Advertising Co. in Toronto. On the death of her mother, she again returned to her birthplace where she met and married Milton Lawrence (Larry) Fuller. The couple came to Syracuse in 1959. They settled in Baldwinsville where Ms. Fuller covered the VanBuren Town Board meetings for the “Messenger.” After the birth of two daughters, Mrs. Fuller served on the board of the Baldwinsville Volunteer Center and was the first president of the parent-teacher group at M.E. Reynolds Elementary School. She was leader of the junior Girl Scout Troop 505 for six years. In 1983, Mrs. Fuller earned a Master of Science degree in English education at Syracuse University and taught junior high school English at West Genesee Junior High School. In the 1980s, she served as managing editor of “Lake Effect,” a non-profit newsprint literary magazine published from the Oswego Art Guild. Mrs. Fuller served the Chippewa Yacht Club for two years as Commodore. She edited two books, one a 100-year history of the Yacht Club, and the other a book of biographies of the class of 1953 at Carleton College. Mrs. Fuller is survived by her husband, Larry Fuller; her two daughters, Katherine Fuller Mendez (Raymond Mendez) of New York, New York, and Amy Fuller (David Henderson) of Larchmont, New York, as well as one nephew, Mike O’Connor of Marfa, Texas, and three grandchildren, Cordelia Fuller Mendez of New York, Niall Fuller Henderson and William Fuller Henderson of Larchmont. Calling hours will be from 3 to 5PM, on Thursday, October 2, 2014, at the Falardeau Funeral Home, 93 Downer Street, in Baldwinsville, followed by a reception from 5 to 7PM at the Fuller house on Maple Road. For those wishing to make donations in Mrs. Fuller’s memory, please consider, in lieu of flowers, the Baldwinsville Christmas Bureau program at the Baldwinsville Volunteer Center, 8 Mechanic Street, Baldwinsville, NY or the Hospice Foundation of CNY, 990 Seventh North St., Liverpool, NY 13088.