Alice Marie Stroup - An Upstate Life

Wilton, NY – Alice M. Stroup (née Sherman), aged 96, passed away peacefully at her home of 68 years. She retained her polite manners, sharp powers of observation and aesthetic sensibilities—manifested in her ready smiles and thank-yous, witty quips and sartorial standards—as well as her everyday enjoyment of her cherished pets, independent lifestyle, and the scenic views—afforded by her “house on the hill”—of woods, flowers, wildlife and Vermont mountains. In the fullest sense, she was glad to be home.

Alice was socially conscious. She dedicated much of her life to community service including teaching primary school, serving as Den Mother of the largest (and perhaps the most rambunctious) Cub Scout troop on record, working as a Saratoga County social worker, delivering Meals on Wheels, volunteering at the Hyde Museum, and serving as President of the Flower and Fruit Mission, a non-profit that supports Saratoga Hospital.

She enjoyed botany and birds and had countless adventures in local woods, fields and swamps, especially with her friend and neighbor Orra Phelps (MD; Commander USN)—they wore their binoculars, burrs and mud with pride. Her other interests included history, art, international travel and archeology. At one of their seasonal plant swap meets, her longtime, effervescent friend Zack Solov—the NY Met dancer, choreographer and Saratoga denizen—told her with a smile, dramatic bow and his hallmark boisterous laugh, that she was “a lady of many parts and dances”—and she was.

Alice was the daughter of Alice M. Sherman (née Sigsby) and County Judge and NY Assemblyman Richard J. Sherman. She grew up, along with her older brother Richard (Dick; decd. 2014) and older sister Marilyn (decd. 1991), at 1 Russell Street and, later, around the corner at 45 Waterbury Street in Saratoga Springs. She married her high school sweetheart—the talented, witty and wonderfully irreverent Walter M. Stroup II—who grew up a short walk away at 588 North Broadway, where, in passing by, she and others could hear him playing piano—especially his beloved Chopin—for hours on any given day. A sense of humor—including about themselves—eminent decency and benign impishness were cornerstones of their lifelong bond.

She attended No. 2 School and graduated from Saratoga High School and Skidmore College. Later, when she was a busy mother with four school-aged children, she pursued her master’s degree at Russell Sage College. After her husband Walter returned from serving as a naval officer in the Korean War and began his career as an attorney, they moved to their quiet hillside in Wilton, which they shared with the Waits (“Pete” and Jane and their children) and Greys (Ted and Ann and their children) who were their friends and immediate neighbors. This was their base for many happy adventures together, including raising their four children, myriad creative yard projects, trips abroad and sailing on Saratoga Lake and Lake George. In his later years, Walter developed frontal temporal dementia and Alice demonstrated her characteristic loyalty and mettle by caring for him for several years— despite the many challenges this entailed—until he passed away peacefully at home with her by his side in 2014, aged 85.

Over the next decade Alice carried on: reading a few books a week; gardening; swimming and tobogganing (until she was 94!) with her grandchildren; and driving into Saratoga—with her convertible’s top down and sporting Jackie-O-style sunglasses—for shopping and to get jugs of mineral water from her favorite springs: Orenda and Hathorn #1. She became “the official, very old lady,” as she put it, at neighborhood gatherings. She was blessed with a younger generation of wonderful friends and neighbors who rallied to help her achieve her earnest wish of living out her years in her own home, which proved to be a real challenge given her modest resources, the need to navigate byzantine eldercare bureaucracies and the many slippery slopes into a nursing home—institutions she pithily called “elder storage, well-intentioned or not.” Her sense of personal dignity and strong will in this, as in other matters, was an inspiration.

Alice is survived by her four children, Robin L. Stroup (retired NYS administrative judge), Leslie E. Kettlewell (child dance instructor), Walter M. Stroup III (UMass Professor of Education) and George A. Stroup (US/UK-based entrepreneur and corporate attorney), as well as her six grandchildren: Ian, Heather, Walter (IV), Sam, Saxby and Saskia.

Relatives and friends may call from 2:30pm to 6:30pm Friday, August 14, 2026 at the William J. Burke & Sons/Bussing & Cunniff Funeral Homes, 628 North Broadway, Saratoga Springs 584-5373.