Notes for: John S. Bodine
From Ronny Bodine:
John Bodine never married and lived with his widowed mother and siblings in New York City until his mother's death in 1884. In June 1900, aged 50, he lived with his older sister Mary, working as a cashier. In April 1910, he lived with his sister in Queens and worked as a cashier for a paint wholesaler. His age fluctuated considerably over the years--6 in 1850, 15 in 1860, 23 in 1870, 30 in 1880, 50 in 1900 and 65 in 1910. More likely his earlier age was correctly given by his mother and he was born in 1844.
Obituary, The Independent (St. Petersburg, Fla.) of Friday, 15 June 1923.
John Bodine, seven months a resident of this city, died at 2:45 this morning at the Grand View hotel after a lingering illness. He was 77 years old and a former resident of New York city, where the body will be returned by the Endicott Funeral company. Death came as a peaceful end to many years of active service in the commercial world. Though he had been retired several years, Mr. Bodine was at one time cashier and general manager of the Masury & Son Paint company of New York city, and had been conversant with business conditions in his line until the time of his illness. The body will be accompanied on the trip home by John Dohsee, an intimate friend of the death man.
Obituary, The Brooklyn Daily Eagle of 16 June 1923.
BODINE---On Friday, June 15, 1923, at St. Petersburg, Florida, after long illness, JOHN BODINE, son of the late Adam and Ann Bodine, resident of Far Rockaway, N. Y. Funeral services and interment at Greenwood Cemetery on Sunday, June 17, at 4 p.m. (Newburgh papers please copy.)
Newspaper Obituary, The New York Times of Sunday, 17 June 1923.
BODINE--John, in his 83rd year, resident of Far Rockaway, N.Y. at St. Petersburg, Fla., on Friday, June 15, 1923, after long illness; son of the late Adam and Ann Bodine; funeral services and interment at Greenwood Cemetery, on Sunday, June 17, at 4 P.M. Newburgh papers please copy.
The foregoing obituary clearly relates to John Bodine son of Theron and Margaret Bodine as their son was buried in the family plot and that there was no other John Bodine buried at Green-Wood Cemetery. John's father, Theron, died in 1849, and it seems his uncle Adam Bodine stepped in to help raise the orphans.
From Florida Death Records:
John BODIN died 1923 in Pinellas County.
Burials in Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn, New York.
Lot 3742, Section 22.
SARAH BODINE buried 14 Oct 1884
MARGARET BODINE buried 26 Oct 1886
MARY J. BODINE buried 15 March 1913
JOHN BODINE buried 18 June 1923.
From The Daily Review (Long Island, NY) of Wednesday, 19 Sept. 1923.
Mineola, Sept. 18.---Evidently realizing that he faced a cheerless and more or less friendless old age and not wanting others to come to know the loneliness that was his, John Bodine, of Far Rockaway, who died in Florida several weeks ago left his money to found a home for the aged. In his will Mr. Bodine left to William S. Pettit of Woodmere, long his friend and counsellor, a sum in excess of $150,000, to be used as the foundation of the home and Mr. Pettit is engaged in starting the legal machinery that will bring the home into being. Two other trustees were named with Mr. Pettit but one of them is dead and the other is out of the country, hence Mr. Pettit will shortly ask the Supreme Court to name two persons to act with him as trustees of the home fund. It was the idea of the late Mr. Bodine who was 76 years old when he died and who was for many years connected with the Masury Paint Company, to provide a home for the elderly folk who, having some little competence, had no place they could call home and no matter where they found themselves found that as an aged person they were hardly more than tolerated. Because he had felt some of the loneliness of age, Mr. Bodine conceived the idea of the Bodine Club, the home will be called that, and laid his plans to have Mr. Pettit carry it out when the founder was gone. Mr. Pettit says that he is now investigating different homes and incidentally he says the Town House for the aged is one of the best conducted institutions he has ever seen, and he hopes to have the idea he wants when he has finished his search. He plans a $60,000 place with $100,000 endowment and he expects that elderly folk with some means but not wholly indigent will find a haven there where they may spend their last years happily.