Sunday's Obituary - Impi Mustonen

Or: Do you know the people in your neighborhood?

We moved from Chicago, Illinois back to our hometown of Ithaca, New York in June 1970. City living wasn’t for us rural kids, so we used the excuse of attending Cornell grad school to move back onto home turf.  As we finished the two years master’s program, we started looking for a house to buy. Next door to my in-laws was this cute little house with a cute little price. But a price a bit beyond starving grad student reach, and the house needed a lot of renovation and updating.  The house was owned by Einar and Impi Mustonen.  They married about 1930, never had any children, and lived on their small subsistence farm in the hills of Newfield, New York.  In the 1930 census Impi was forty years old and a servant in Chicago; her husband, Einar was a painter in a Chicago hotel.  Although we decided not to buy their house, we did purchase their wringer washer and used it in our apartment.

Menanga, Minnesota - Mrs. Impi Mustonen, 87, a former Newfield resident, died Saturday, July 30, 1977 in the Green Pine Acres Nursing Home here. Born September 28, 1889 in Pomarkku, Finland, Mrs. Mustonen was the daughter of the late Jacob and Selma Makela. Mrs. Mustonen had resided in Minnesota for the past seven years. She had been a resident of Newfield for more than 40 years. She was the wife of the late Einar Mustonen, who died in 1970. Mrs. Mustonen is survived by a brother, Jalmari Makela of Pomarkku, Finland.  Burial will be in LaRue Cemetery [Van Etten, NY].