Warwick's quiet champion passes

Editor’s note: (Florence Tate had a special relationship to The Warwick Advertiser, being daughter of James P. Tate, editor and publisher of the paper for 50 years until around 1959. One of Florence’s projects was to help with the effort to microfilm the back issues of the Advertiser for posterity, back in the 1970’s. They are used constantly by researchers, here at the Albert Wisner Public Library.) To the editor: One of Warwick’s most important people of the past century passed away quietly on Nov. 29. Her slight figure, familiar to many and always recognizable in sensible hat and shoes, was an icon of our community as she made her way about the village on errands. To those who had the fortune to know her, Florence Tate was a treasure trove of knowledge about our heritage; someone who would do her best to help you, with no expectation of recompense for her time. She was 92 and her recollections of our community stretched far back to the early decades of the last century. There are few in Warwick with a memory as sharp or comprehensive. Even to the last years, her memory was still better than most people you’ll ever meet. Queries out of the blue such as, “Whose store was this?” or “Who were the parents of this person?” were met with a slight pause, and then more often than not the information was immediately forthcoming. If she didn’t know off the top of her head, she would do her best to look it up for you in her amazing collection of books, papers, and correspondence. Over the years she also answered thousands of letters from those seeking their family history, received from all over the country. Earlier in her career she did much with outreach, educating the community and contributing to preservation efforts by writing articles and giving speeches. Yet she always was self-effacing and kind. When confronted with a confusion of facts or outright errors on the part of researchers, she offered her corrections gently, but firmly. One recollection of her, offered by Orange County Historian Ted Sly, is that at a meeting of historians from around the county, someone claimed that they owned the oldest house in Orange County. Florence simply stood up, stated, “Is not,” and sat back down. Her many thousands of hours of volunteer time in helping the people of Warwick remember and understand our town’s history is one thing that made this a very special place, and she will be dearly missed. Sue Gardner Albert Wisner Public Library