Lois Ann Guernsey Woolsey was born on June 8, 1935, in West Hartford, Connecticut. Her father

was a headmaster, and her family believed in books and a love of learning. As a child, she lived in

Minnesota and Delaware. In both places, she learned to carry herself with strength and grace. Lois

enjoyed her years at Tower Hill School in Wilmington and captained the field hockey team at

Northfield School for Girls in Massachusetts.

Summers were spent at Camp Songadeewin on Lake Willoughby in Vermont. She learned to paddle

a canoe there, to read the water, and to love the outdoors. By the time she left camp, she could teach

others what she had learned.

She went to Middlebury College in 1953 and studied French and Spanish. There, she met Thomas S.

Woolsey, a geology and geography student. They were married in Mead Chapel in February 1957

amidst the reveries and despite the delays of Winter Carnival. At the reception, the fraternity boys

called her "their darling."

Lois lived many lives. She was a teacher, a mother, and a sailor. She lived in New Jersey,

Connecticut, Colorado and Illinois. In Illinois, she taught school and managed a children's clothing

store. She also sailed catamarans with Tom. They won races and proudly displayed their trophies.

When Lois and Tom retired from teaching, they moved to Fort Myers, Florida, where they wintered

at Big Pine Key Fishing Lodge. There, Lois led water aerobics classes, hosted waffle parties, baked

pies for holiday celebrations, and earned awards jitterbugging with Tom. Summers were spent

swimming, canoeing and sailing at their lakeside cabin in Maine.

Tom's death, in addition to one too many hurricanes, finally drove Lois out of Florida. She spent the

last two years of her life in Middlebury at the Residence at Otter Creek, where she encountered old

friends, made new ones, and was as busy as she had ever been in her life.

Lois supervised this year's Hallowe'en at her daughter's home on South Street. Torrents of trick-or-

treaters were delighted with her youthful enthusiasm.

She leaves behind her children—Kris (m. Velaire), Tami (m. David Munford), and Scott—and her

grandsons, Germán Manrique and Elias Woolsey.

And so, the story of Lois Ann Guernsey Woolsey lives on—not in the big, loud way that some stories

are told, but in the quiet, lovely way that makes you smile whenever you remember her.