Kathleen Joddy Rajter
Two things before the obituary:
I didn’t plan on reposting my mom’s obituary on my personal website. However, the newspaper we paid $700 to publish it in print edition has decided to place it behind a paywall on the web. This is bullshit, but I’m not going to fight it.
The celebration-of-life gathering will take place at FFCS from 2-5 PM on Saturday May 30th. All are welcome to attend. We will provide everyone an opportunity to write a card as a final message to Joddy.
Below is the original obituary, published here.
Kathleen Joddy Rajter
Kathleen “Joddy” Rajter (née Manelius), age 73, of Fultonville, NY, passed away on Thursday, April 30, 2026. She leaves behind three sons, two granddaughters, and a community that she loved and was loved dearly by.
Born June 18, 1952 in Fultonville to Marion and Roy Manelius, Joddy would go on to know the community better than almost anyone. After graduating from Fonda Fultonville Central High School, Joddy became secretary of the Elementary School and remained in that position for nearly 40 years. For Joddy, this was more than a job, it was a calling. She became the linchpin in the community and effectively its welcoming committee, especially for families new to the area. She greeted thousands of students and parents over her career and she remembered all of them. She watched as many of those students grew up to become teachers and colleagues themselves. Joddy lived fully into life’s simple and most beautiful pleasures and taught all around her how to indulge in them too; she’d often leave fresh-picked strawberries on a teacher’s desk, or a handwritten card just because, to offerings of small things she found when she thought of you. She had a gift for noticing other people’s quiet acts of kindness and wouldn’t hesitate to name them out loud. She was always an advocate for the kids who needed one; known to float lunch money out of her own pocket to a child whose parent had forgotten that morning or introducing a child new to the area to other students with similar interests, and sometimes even to her own kids.
Joddy was also relentlessly resourceful and industrious. On top of her day job, she ran community garage sales, cleaned houses, worked the ticket booth at the county fair every year, and operated her own second-hand store. And she did it all with style. Joddy was known across the county for her bold outfits and her unshakable willingness to wear exactly what she wanted, whenever she wanted. She made an entrance and played by her own rules.
Joddy’s three boys were truly her life’s work. Throughout the hardships that life brought forward her determination to give them a stable home was palpable, and she met every storm with the same fierce will and stubborn love she brought to everything else. Pride is too small of a word for how she felt about her boys. She made certain they had every opportunity to play sports, to learn, and to chase the dreams they wanted. Those opportunities led her sons Rick to MIT, Dan to Northeastern, and Ryan to Ohio Tech.
She is survived by her sons, Rick Francis Manelius (Emily Pearson Manelius), Dan Alexander Rajter, and Ryan D. Kelly Rajter; her brother, Warren Kelly Manelius; her granddaughters, Evelyn Noelle Manelius and Laurel Hope Manelius; and her ex husband, Stanley Paul Rajter, whom she kept a lifelong and loving friendship with. She is predeceased by her parents, Roy Alexander Manelius and Marion Lerne Gardner, and her daughter-in-law Elissa Rae Rajter.
A remembrance will take place on May 30th from 2-5PM at the Fonda Fultonville Middle School cafeteria, with Eulogies at 3PM. Bring a story to share about Joddy if you’d like. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations in Joddy’s memory may be made to Recovery.org.