Alice Wareham (undated)
Adirondack Daily Enterprise,
June 15, 2018Born: September 2, 1922

Died: June 11, 2018

Married: Arthur Wareham

Children: Ann Wilcox Wareham

A daughter of Clara Eloise Wilcox and John Ridenour, Alice Everest Ridenour Wareham wrote for the Adirondack Daily Enterprise, and was a long-time, stalwart volunteer for the Village Improvement Society. In her many press releases for the VIS, Alice never failed to recall the Olmsted Plan for Saranac Lake, a document created by Edward Clark Whiting in about 1909 that has been the blueprint for the VIS's work ever since.

She attended the Baldwin School, and graduated from Saranac Lake High School in 1939 and Smith College in 1944.  Since she was 17 she had worked summers in the newsroom of the Adirondack Daily Enterprise. After graduating from Smith she returned to Saranac Lake.  With the World War II labor shortages, she was placed in the composing room and ultimately became a journeyman Linotypist. Eventually  she was moved to the circulation, front office, classified advertising and display advertising departments until she had a sound working knowledge of each. When Mr. Ridenour sold the Enterprise in 1949, she had become co-publisher.

She was married to Arthur W. Wareham February 9, 1952 at St. Luke’s Church in Saranac Lake. The couple had one daughter, Ann Wilcox Wareham (Mrs. Jonathan P. Driller) of Ridgewood, New Jersey.

She was a lifelong communicant of St. Luke’s Church, and a member of St. Luke’s Ladies’ Guild. She served as secretary of the Saranac Lake Free Library board, was an active member of the Village Improvement Society, served on the Saranac Lake Voluntary Health Association board and had been on the organizational board of the Lake Placid Sinfonietta, serving six years and continuing on its Advisory Board.

Alice Wareham's funeral was held on June 19, 2018. Those wishing to remember her are asked to donate to the Village Improvement Society, Voluntary Health Association, Saranac Lake Free Library, Tri-Lakes Humane Society or Memorial Endowment Fund of the Church of St. Luke, the Beloved Physician.

Adirondack Daily Enterprise, June 15, 2018

Alice (Ridenour) Wareham

Alice Ridenour Wareham of Saranac Lake, died Monday, June 11, 2018, at the University of Vermont Medical Center.

She was born Sept. 2, 1922 in Saranac Lake the daughter of John Schell Ridenour and Clara (Wilcox) Ridenour.

She attended Baldwin

Elementary School, graduated from the Saranac Lake High School in 1939 and Smith College in 1944.

After graduating from Smith College she returned to Saranac Lake. With World War II in progress, she had worked summers in the newsroom on her father’s newspaper, the Adirondack Daily Enterprise, since she was 17. As the draft decimated available compositors she was placed in the composing room and ultimately became a journeyman Lino typist. Gradually she was moved to the circulation, front office, classified advertising and display advertising departments until she had a sound working knowledge of each. When Mr. Ridenour sold the Enterprise in 1949, she had become co-publisher.

She was married to Arthur W. Wareham Feb. 9, 1952 at St. Luke’s Church in Saranac Lake. The couple had one daughter, Ann Wilcox Wareham (Mrs. Jonathan P. Driller) of Ridgewood, New Jersey who, with her husband, survives.

Mrs. Wareham was a lifelong communicant of St. Luke’s Church, a member of St. Luke’s Ladies’ Guild, and had been active in many civic organizations. She had served as secretary of the Saranac Lake Free Library board, was an active member of the Village Improvement Society, served on the Saranac Lake Voluntary Health Association board and had been on the organizational board of the Lake Placid Sinfonietta, Inc., serving six years and continuing on its Advisory Board.

An avid gardener and knitter, Mrs. Wareham enjoyed travelling and expanded other horizons through annual attendance at the Smith Alumnae College.

Mrs. Wareham was predeceased by her husband March 10, 2005. She was also predeceased by her sister and brother-in-law Eleanor (Mrs. Andrew Cheselka) of South Setauket, Long Island.

In addition to her daughter and son-in-law survivors include two nephews: Andrew Cheselka Jr., of Spring, Texas, and John R. Cheselka of Setauket, Long Island.

Funeral arrangements are in care of the Fortune-Keough Funeral Home in Saranac Lake. There will be no calling hours. Funeral services will be held 11 a.m. Tuesday, June 19, at St. Luke’s Church with a reception in the Parish House. Burial will be in the family plot in St. John’s in the Wilderness, Paul Smiths.

Those wishing to remember her are asked to donate to the Village Improvement Society, Voluntary Health Association, Saranac Lake Free Library, Tri-Lake s Humane Society or Memorial Endowment Fund of the Church of St. Luke, the Beloved Physician.

An excerpt from Adirondack Daily Enterprise, December 23, 2017

"The true spirit of Christmas" by Howard Riley

. . . This feature story [see Arthur Pratt] was written by one of my mentors when I started work at the Enterprise . . . Alice Ridenour Wareham whose parents, Mr. and Mrs. John Ridenour, owned the Enterprise forever.

Alice could cover any job at the newspaper from reporting, editing, proofreading or circulation; she could them switch gears and go to the composing room running the linotype machine or pulling proofs on the proof press. She taught me to operate the linotype machine, a complicated contraption used in the hot type era.

It would take pages to describe how the linotype worked, but for now suffice it to say that it had 99 keys and the typesetter typed up and down not horizontal; my sort of long hair drove Alice nuts and she threatened many times to walk over and cut it off, hanging over my forehead as I typed.

Adirondack Daily Enterprise, May 25, 2002

"Establishing signs of the times" by the late Bill McLaughlin (reprinted from November 1976)

The Front Page
". . . Alice Ridenour Wareham paints the most graphic image of the Enterprise year when she was being groomed as co-publisher with her father.

"Everyone in town said she could run any machine or any job on the paper, and I think she proved it more than once. If she was queen of the hot metal days, her name should be etched in the logo among those who gave the Enterprise a unique authority across the Adirondacks in rare and racy times.
"I think that in the tradition of John Ridenour, 'the readers still damn the newspaper upside down, but they still keep reading it!' . . ."

Adirondack Daily Enterprise, January 14, 1952

RIDENOUR WAREHAM

Mr. and Mrs. John S. Ridenour, of 112 Park avenue, announce the engagement of their daughter, Alice Everest, to Arthur W. Wareham, son of Mrs. Walter Wareham, of Brooklyn, and the late Mr. Wareham. Miss Ridenour attended the Baldwin School, was graduated from the Saranac Lake High School, the Choate School and from Smith College in 1944. She was formerly news editor of the Adirondack Daily Enterprise. Mr. Wareham was graduated from Pratt Institute in 1938 with a degree of Bachelor of Architecture and for two years was in the office of John Russell Pope in New York City. During World War II he was with Caribbean Architect-Engineer in New York and Trinidad, B. W. I., and was architectural engineer with Co-ordinator of Inter-American Affairs in Paraguay. Following this he was hospital architect for the U. S. Public Health Service in Washington, D. C. He is an associate member of the firm of William G. Distin, architect.

External links:
In 2010 the Adirondack Daily Enterprise ran a series of articles by Alice Wareham about the history of the parks in Saranac Lake:

And in 1994, she wrote a long piece on the paper's history under her father, continued here.


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