Mary Theresa Zimmerman

Mary Theresa Zimmerman, age 91, died Wednesday, June 4, 2025 at home surrounded by her loving daughters. She was predeceased by her husband, Richard Zimmerman and brother “Jerry” Greenleaf. She was a woman of strength, perseverance, inspiration, faith, love, laughter, and always with a twinkle in her eye.

Born to Harry J. and Mary T. Greenleaf, she was raised in Palisade Park, NJ. Before getting married at the age of 28, she worked in Greenwich Village/New York City for Bell Laboratories and enjoyed sports and activities especially dancing, swimming at the Jersey Shore, hiking and roller derby.

As a dedicated wife and mother she lived a life of service and was a role model to both young and old throughout. During her courtship and early married life, she helped Richard with his nursery business. While raising her family, she spent decades planting, harvesting and preserving their garden’s bounty. For years, she led Girl Scout Troops, including countless excursions and summer camps. Proving you're never too old, she graduated, at the age of 50, from Canton ATC with an Associates degree in Business Administration. Then kept the books for both family owned businesses, Pack and Paddle and Canoes Plus. Each summer she would take a week to hike with her lady friends, known as “The Seven-Seven Lakers”, completing the Finger Lakes Trail, the Northville-Placid Trail as well as sections of the Appalachian Trail. She also enjoyed her membership in the international non-collegiate sorority Beta Sigma Phi and later served on her church’s Altar Rosary Society. All the while doing crafts including ceramics, sewing, crocheting and painting. With Richard and her four girls, she enjoyed countless trips and travels all around the US and Canada. In retirement, she traveled internationally in the Peace Corps and VOCA (Volunteers Overseas Cooperative Associates) with Richard. Always up for an adventure, she and Richard also volunteered for the National Park Service and U.S. Forest Service greeting guests, monitoring recreational activities or studying the Red-cockaded Woodpecker. Throughout her later years, she recorded her daily life through journaling and enjoyed countless hours of word puzzles, card games and playing Free Cell Solitaire online. As a woman of incredible strength she persevered through numerous surgeries, cancers and lived nine years after suffering an “unsurvivable” stroke. She shared a kind word and offered wisdom and motivation, if she thought it helpful. She always had a smile to greet you and though she had a quiet side she could really belt it out when singing in church, leading a troop of scouts, calling her family in for dinner, shouting for her husband in an emergency, or laughing - she had a great laugh!

She will be dearly missed by her family, including her daughters Wendy Bacon (Randy), Carol Zimmerman, Susan Zimmerman and Sharon Zimmerman (Glenn) as well as her grandchildren David Bacon, Holly Cooley (Dave), Daniel Zimmerman and great-granddaughter Calilynn Cooley. In our tree of life, if our father was the trunk, branches and roots, our mother was the earth that gave us life, supported us and allowed us to grow. This extraordinary woman has left a legacy of fortitude, love of family and faith, and optimism for humankind. Those who have known her, family, friends, caregivers and strangers alike, all bore witness to a genuine soul who left a mark on our hearts that will never be forgotten.

A mass of Christian Burial will be held at St. Mary's Church, Lawrence Ave., Potsdam on June 27th, 2025 at 10am with Father Joseph Giroux officiating. Followed by a committal service at Bayside Cemetery.

In lieu of flowers, please make a donation to Hospice and Palliative Care of St. Lawrence Valley at https://hospiceslv.org/

Arrangements are under the care of the Garner Funeral Service, Potsdam. Condolences for the Zimmerman family can be shared @www.garnerfh.com.