Ginny was born in Lake Placid to  Robert and Bernice Lacey, who then lived on Sentinel Road. Her father played the violin and anything else with strings. Recognizing her talent for music, he started teaching her violin when she was little more than a toddler. I first heard about Ginny when school instrumental music teacher Charlie Lehman told the high school senior orchestra about a musical prodigys little five-year-old Virginia Lacey, who was going to be playing violin in the junior orchestra. I still remember the sight of this little girl with dark curls intent on playing her violin, and then deciding I needed to practice. That year I was playing second-chair viola, next to Henry Gelles in the high school orchestra. Neither he nor I would have guessed that Henry, for 15 years, would have Ginny as an employee in his law office.  

    When Ginny was eight years old, she began piano lessons with a local talented pianist and teacher, Nels Dashnaw, and played her first formal piano recital, the “Warsaw Concerto,” at the high school when in the 10th grade. She still kept up the violin, however, and was a featured soloist at her graduation from Lake Placid High School in 1956. When Ginny was around15, she became a student of Carl Lansom from the Lake Placid Club. Carl was a former accompanist for famous violinist Fritz Kreisler.

    Playing the violin and piano were not the only things that occupied Ginny during her senior year. That year a young man from Ausable Forks, who had attended Eastern Nazarene Academy, transferred to Lake Placid to complete his senior year in order to take subjects not available at his former school. His name was Walter Hazelton and he too loved music, playing several instruments and singing in a barbershop quartet. They both admit to being painfully shy during their school years, but when they met something clicked, and they never looked at anyone else. They became an item and went to the Winter Carnival “Icicle Hop” wearing identical sweaters knit by her mother — the last stitches completed only just before the dance.         After their high school year of going steady, they were separated by lack of transportation (no driver’s license) and the consequences of the times. Walter went into the armed services, and at only 17 years old, Ginny went to Albany State Teachers College. She did not stay long but returned home and took a correspondence course in bookeeping. Henry Gelles, then a new lawyer in town, needed someone to help with his office work and Ginny got the job, which lasted 15 years with only a short break, working for Jack Davis at the Hotel Marcy.

    Ginny never wanted to teach music, but she started very young playing organ at St. Eustace Episcopal Church and also directed the choir.  Last year the church celebrated her 50th anniversary as organist and choir director, and I was privileged to honor her as part of that choir. Ginny also took her music on the road, playing at weddings, funerals and many special events.

    In 1959,  Ginny married Alan Jones from Willsboro. They had a son, Eric, one of the joys of her life, but the marriage lasted only four years. In the 1960s, Ginny decided to try marriage again with Floyd Gilmore. They were married for 25 years before he died, but they were difficult years for Ginny. After that experience Ginny thought she would never marry again. She had lost track of Walter. He too had married, had a daughter and was divorced after 30 years. Walter later married again, but lost his second wife when she died after they had been married for 15 years.

    In 1976, Ginny took a federal Civil Service exam in accounting in order to qualify for the job as village treasurer. She passed, and with our longtime mayor, Robert Peacock, supporting her, Ginny was appointed to that position. Retiring 28 years later, she knew almost everything about almost everyone in the village. Since retiring, she has kept busy preparing personal and business taxes and audits.       

    Ten years before she retired, Ginny decided she needed “something to pick her up” and on a whim, went down to our local airport and signed up for flying lessons. In 14 months she had her hours in the air, her license and often went flying by herself. The church and other friends gave her gifts of flying time. Ginny was now able to be above it all.

    You are probably wondering how Ginny and Walter finally got together after 53 years. The answer is they found each other on the internet on “Classmates.” Ginny contacted Walter and for seven years they corresponded on the computer. Last August, Walter made the trip from Nashville, Tenn. to Albany for his brother’s anniversary and decided (as he told me) “to look her up.” He had a terrible time finding her house on Wildwood Drive, but finally Ginny opened her door, barefoot and in her old shirt, and they both told me “It was love at first sight.”  

    Walter told her that he had carried her picture for two years in the army and asked her to marry him. When Ginny said yes, he called her son Eric to ask his permission to marry. Ginny and Walter Hazelton were married in November at St. Eustace Church. In April they plan to honeymoon in Portland, Maine where they both will enjoy a gospel music gathering.