Elizabeth “Liz” Fenn, 78

Wellsville, NY - Elizabeth “Liz” Fenn, 78, passed away Friday, August 14, 2020. She was born on Long Island, and was a graduate of the Katherine Gibbs School in Manhattan. She was employed in New York City until her marriage and was carried off to the Philadelphia suburbs for 10 years.   

Liz later became a working partner of a registered Holstein dairy farm in upstate New York. Eventually, she moved over to the Tug Hill Plateau amidst its glorious monumental snowings, living as curator within her 1885 one room school house museum that was open to the public. For her efforts on Tug Hill, she was presented with a New York State Senate citation. From there Liz advanced her writing career by freelancing a weekly newspaper column and writing ads for WKAL in Rome, NY. She also was published worldwide over 200 vignettes of near wilderness life as she experienced it among those persons she encounter and loved. For some of these she was given invitational reads at St. Lawrence University, Kingston, Ontario, Columbia University, NYC and Borders Books in Syracuse, NY.

In the summers Liz mentored creative writing within a tri-county program for advanced high school seniors. Liz is known further for having taught classical Haiku poems to students in public and private schools, as well as groups of adults via the Haiku Conservatory which she founded. Besides Liz’s love of travel on snowshoes, she also enjoyed solo hikes and forest camp-outs with her loving canine companion, Bobbie. She served for a time as secretary for the Creative Writers of the Southern Tier, and was a communicant of the Immaculate Conception R.C. Church in Wellsville.

Liz was predeceased by her parents, Leo and Clara (Mehltretter) Klarman, and a baby brother, Robert Charles. She leaves behind three sons, Scott Edward, Mark Andrew and his wife Kelly, Troy Joseph, and his wife Lisa, a daughter, Kirsten Theresa-Marie and her husband David, and four grands, Gregory Joseph, Steven Michael, Josephine Claire and Susannah Leigh.

Friends are invited to call on Thursday, August 20, 2020 from 10:00 to 11:00 am at the Immaculate Conception Church, 36 Maple Avenue in Wellsville. A Mass of Christian Burial will follow at 11:00 am. Burial will in St. Joseph’s Cemetery in Scio. In lieu of flowers, please share a donation to Aid for the Church in Need or Heifer International. “May God bless you all” To leave online condolences, please visit www.embserfuneralhome.com.