Elizabeth J. Flatt

ELIZABETH FLATT

NOVEMBER 25, 1925 – MAY 17, 2024

Elizabeth “Beth” Flatt passed away peacefully in the company of family on Friday at St. Peter’s Hospital.  She was 98 years old.

For over fifty years, Beth lived in Schenectady, New York, where she and her husband Earle raised five children.  She worked as a nurse in several local hospitals and was known by family, friends, and colleagues for her quick wit, cool head, sharp dress sense, and her customary sign-off, “Be good.”

Beth was born in Troy to William and Elizabeth Bromley.  She was an adventurous and gifted child, who, by age five, had learned to read the funny papers with her grandfather and navigate the city bus alone.  A proud Trojan, Beth attended Catholic High, where she participated in “anything and everything there was to do” including acting and singing, before graduating early at age 16.  She attended Russell Sage College until she was old enough to attend nursing school.  Beth joined the U.S. Cadet Nurse Corps, helping in the cause to keep civilian nursing care afloat during World War II.

Shortly after the war, she met Earle Flatt, a student at Siena College who had recently returned from serving the Navy in the Pacific.  According to Beth, Earle had “the cutest ears I ever saw”, and the two were married in 1949 at St. Patrick’s Church in Troy, a block from Beth’s childhood home.  They held their reception at the Crooked Lake Hotel in Averill Park, NY, where they would eventually return in 2019 for their 70th wedding anniversary party.

Beth was a skilled career nurse.  After graduating, she started in the OR at Samaritan Hospital and later worked in the ERs at Columbia Memorial Hospital in Hudson and Ellis Hospital in Schenectady.  She spent the last two decades of her career at St. Clare’s Hospital in Schenectady before retiring in her 70s.  Her medical expertise also carried over into the home, where Beth was a calm first responder to injury-prone children and grandchildren and, later in life, a loving caretaker to her husband Earle during his final days.

A beloved matriarch, Beth was devoted to her always-growing family.  She encouraged her children and grandchildren to participate in athletics and the arts and to be well-rounded individuals.  Her scrambled eggs, chocolate chip cookies, and Boston cream pie were legendary, and she claimed to have learned 700 different ways to cook chicken.  She was an expert storyteller and could elicit belly laughs by recounting emergency room stories or family lore with her dry and self-deprecating sense of humor.

Beth loved the NFL, Siena basketball wins, old-fashioneds (until switching to Chardonnay at age 90 for health reasons), and watching television.  Beth did not love tattoos, Siena basketball losses, intinction, or admitting that she watched television.  For most of her life, she was a devout communicant and volunteer at St. Madeleine Sophie Church in Guilderland.

Beth was preceded in death by her husband Earle of 71 years, her parents, her sisters Jane and Lois Mair, and her brother-in-law Albert Mair.  She is survived by her children Dean (Mary Ann) of Montclair, NJ, Marc (Amy) of Lillington, North Carolina, Beth Ann Chatnik of Schenectady, Neal (Malia) of Midlothian, VA, and Kevin (Tamerine) of Marietta, GA, as well as her brother-in-law Richard W. Mair of Whitesboro, NY, sixteen grandchildren, ten great-grandchildren, and several nieces and nephews.

Beth’s life will be celebrated with a Mass of Christian Burial at St. Madeleine Sophie at 12 noon on Tuesday, May 21, preceded by a viewing in the church from 10:30 to 11:45.  She will be interred at St. Cyril Methodius Cemetery in Rotterdam.

Her family wishes to thank both her devoted home care team and the staff of the Step Down Unit in 2 McAuley at St. Peter’s for their kind and attentive care.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to St. Madeleine Sophie Church in Guilderland.

Be good.