Monday, October 26, 2026 | St. Lawrence County, NY
CANTON -- Martha A. Ellen, Canton, died after living with Stage IV breast cancer since 2009. Thank you to the doctors, nurses and staff at the Richard E. Cancer Center, UVM, Dana Farber Cancer Center and to the scientific advancements that kept her alive all those years.
According to her wishes, there will be no services. Please plant something in her memory.
Born September 21, 1953, in Atlanta, Ga., she was the daughter of Holocaust survivors Israel A. and Dora Ellen.
She graduated from Henry Grady High School in Atlanta and with a bachelor’s degree in art history from Barnard College in New York City in 1975. She earned a certificate in gardening from the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx.
She was a program coordinator for Composers and Choreographers Theatre, which ran dance and music programs at the New School for Social Research in New York City before moving in 1978 to a small farm in the town of DeKalb.
She had a number of part-time jobs, including substitute teacher, typist for Cadence magazine, and plant caregiver at Park Florist in Canton before becoming a reporter for the Watertown Daily Times. She worked for the paper for seven years before resigning to have her children and living in Malone, Tennessee, California and South Carolina.
She returned to the North Country in 1993 and was rehired by the Times, where she worked until retiring in 2014 due to poor health. She was an award-winning journalist, receiving first-place and third-place awards for feature writing from the New York Associated Press Association.
During her retirement, she wrote an historical novel but never published it because she didn’t feel like selling it.
She loved reading, having her questions answered, growing plants, needlework, cats, collecting antiques and folk art, the sound of the ocean and the sand between her toes.
She is survived by her daughter, Sarah Crotty, Portland, Or., her son, Michael Crotty, Gouverneur, a grand-daughter, Talia Rose, Gouverneur, a sister, Peggy Ellen, and her husband, James Kutcher, Washington, D.C., a nephew, Jason Kutcher, Washington, D.C., and a niece, Jordan Grant, New York City.
Lawrence Funeral Home & Cremation Services has been entrusted to Martha’s care and arrangements. Tributes and condolences may be shared by visiting www.lawrencefuneralhome.org.
