Clark Meadows Resident Turns 100!

At 100, ‘Truly a Beauty, Inside and Out’

A former legal secretary, avid Buffalo Bills fan and voracious reader, Isabel Potter celebrated becoming a centenarian on Jan. 3.
Wearing a pink tiara and sash that read “It’s My 100th Birthday” for the occasion, Potter was surrounded by flowers and balloons in her Clark Meadows at Ferris Hills apartment.
She enjoyed a cake with chocolate ganache filling – later shared with fellow residents – and remarked she didn’t feel any different at 100. “I’ve had a wonderful life and have been fairly healthy,” she said.
Now one of three centenarians at the 48-apartment enriched living community, Potter was born in Ontario, Canada. As an only child whose father was a riverboat captain, she grew up not only in Canada but in Alexandria Bay, NY, and in New Jersey as well. She enjoyed sports and played basketball in high school. After high school, she went on to graduate from Drake College of Business in New Jersey before beginning her career as a legal secretary.
Potter met her husband, Floyd, through friends and recalls that her first date with the World War II veteran was dinner and a show. The couple settled in Palmyra, where she enjoyed singing in the church choir and was also president of the women’s association at her church.
The Potters were fond of antique cars and enjoyed attending local car shows, proudly displaying a coupe they owned. They also traveled across the country three times and overseas twice.
Married for 65 years, the Potters had two daughters and three grandchildren. Floyd Potter passed away in 2010 at the age of 94.
At Clark Meadows, his widow enjoys music programs, Bills games and reading. According to Lynne Standish of marketing/sales at the community, she recently finished three books in the course of just one week.
“Isabel is a joy to have in our community,” Standish said. “She is truly a beauty, inside and out.”