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Title
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Leona Chereshnoski, November 13, 2024
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interviewee
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Leona Chereshnoski
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interviewer
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Jessie Burchett
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Date
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2024-11-13
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Subject
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Community
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Dancing
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Education
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Family History
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Fiddler
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Folklore
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Libraries
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Lumbering
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Music
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Old Time Fiddling
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Small Towns
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Traditions
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Tug Hill
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Upstate New York
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Women
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Description
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Leona Chereshnoski is a proud lifetime resident of the Tug Hill community. Tug Hill is an upland region in northern New York state consisting of many small towns dispersed throughout. Born in the little town of Osceola in 1943, population 242 as of 2023, she spent her formative years surrounded by folk music, her mother, Alice Clemens, being a well-renowned fiddler and founder of the New York State Old Tyme Fiddlers' Association (formed in 1976). She left her Osceola home and worked in Syracuse for two years after graduating from Camden Central School. She met her husband, Ray Chereshnoski, at one of her mother's dances and was married on Feb 23, 1963 during a blizzard at St Mary's Church in Florence, NY . They had three children and lived in Lorraine, NY, Ray's hometown. A friend who knew both families said it was a "marriage made in heaven". They were married until 2009 when Ray passed from Lewy Body Dementia. Their daughter Sherry gave them two beautiful grandkids but she passed from Pancreatic Cancer in 2019. Their son Peter and daughter Jackie gave them five more grandchildren and now we have eight great grandchildren. Pete and Jackie do much to help operate and keep up the Bed & Breakfast Leona runs on the old farm in Osceola and that is where they all try to have a family gathering on Christmas Eve each year! While more of a dancer than a fiddler herself, Leona has also always been involved with the fiddling community, first through her mother and wider family’s involvement with the association, before taking on the role as president in recent years.
Here she explores growing up and living in a small community, reflects on her family history and how the area she calls home has changed over the course of her life, and discusses the value of community and folk traditions. Being first a housekeeper and homemaker, then a librarian for 27 years, Leona shares her experience with education and a career later in life, her story emphasizing the value of family support and finding your passions. Her experience as a librarian greatly informed her work with the association she is now president of, and she considers here how technology can help their efforts to share fiddling with a wider audience and bring people together from different backgrounds.
I interviewed Leona at the Jervis Public Library in Rome, New York, a midway point between her home in Osceola and where I am based in Cooperstown. Her sister is currently being cared for in a care home in Rome, and Leona was able to tie this interview together with a visit to her sister. She mentions in the interview the impact music has had on her whole family, this sister included. Very few changes were made in this transcript from the audio itself, only removing filler words for the sake of clarity to the reader.
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Time Summary
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Track 1, 0:00 - Early Life and Family History
Track 1, 6:07 - Music
Track 1, 10:30 - Letters from a Tug Hill Logger, Leona's Grandfather
Track 1, 15:30 - Librarian Career
Track 1, 22:39 - Education
Track 1, 25:03 - New York Folklore Society and the New York State Old Time Fiddler's Association
Track 2, 18:26 - Tug Hill Commission
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Creator
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Jessie Burchett
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Publisher
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Cooperstown Graduate Program, State university of New York at Oneonta
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Rights
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Cooperstown Graduate Association, Cooperstown, NY
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Language
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en-US
