Whispered Wishes & Merry Memories of the Bresee’s Mr. & Mrs. Santa Claus By Mark Simonson
S
anta Claus will soon be coming to town. So be good, for goodness’sake! Santa’s getting ready to make the SIMONSON “rounds.” Jolly ol’Saint Nick works hard for years from the North Pole, but eventually he retires, leaving his work to a new Santa. Oneonta’s own Santa and Mrs. Claus from holidays gone by were not your ordinary Christmas couple. I barely remember the big guy from the city’s “Santa Central,” otherwise known as Bresee’s Oneonta Department Store, but between 1946 and 1959, he and his missus talked with a lot of kids, and not just from Oneonta. This Santa, alias Clark Chap-
layne, got his annual gig, then did amazing things the rest of the year in the North Pole. Seriously. He’d rest a few days after the big “delivery,” come back to his second home in Otsego County and commute between here and the North Pole — as in North Pole, New York at Santa’s Village. Mrs. Claus also had her own story. Mrs. Santa was Mary Barnes Chaplayne. In addition to seeing children at the store, Mary and Clark had a local radio show on WDOS where they chatted with children, live.
Making Merry Before his days on the sleigh listening to youngsters’ wish lists, Chaplayne had rougher rides as a cabin boy aboard the USS Maine during the Spanish-American War of the 1890s. The ship sunk in the Havana harbor. Less hectic
Photo courtesy of The Bresee Family
Bresee’s Oneonta Department Store, as it appeared in the early 20th century.
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THE DAILY STAR e Holiday Guide 2020
