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Evelyn Fitch Keefe
1907-2000 |
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| The following is from Stephen Delsignore, President of the Living History Association (LHA), and is a reprint from the March/April 2000 edition of "The Journal", published by the LHA, and used by permission. | ||
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The "Grandmother" of the LHA, Evelyn Fitch Keefe, died on Sunday morning, February 13, 2000, at Brattleboro Hospital in her beloved state of Vermont. Her life spanned 93 remarkable years.
Born and raised in Vermont, she will be best remembered for her fond recollections of her youth in the Green Mountain state. |
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| Evelyn had no immediate family. Her husband Dan died over forty years ago and they never had any children. However, every LHA member who had the honor of meeting her was welcomed into her circle with an infectious laugh and a warm embrace. Her affable personality and old-time Yankee common sense earned her the time-honored title of "Grandmother". | ||
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| In the LHA's early days, way before the electronic revolution, Evelyn was singularly responsible for typing membership cards and certificates for all of its members. In those days Evelyn would perform her secretarial tasks upstairs while the LHA Board of Directors met below. The sound of manual typewriter keys striking the tympan often pierced the structured silence of many a Board meeting.
When the LHA Administrative Department assembled a huge mailing, it was Evelyn who called her friends to organize a letter-folding and stamp-sticking party. She and her senior cohorts could turn cluttered reams of paper into collated, ready-to-mail brochures in mere hours. Evelyn's gift of gab was only surpassed by her sense of humor and laughter which she gave away quite freely. She maintained her quick wit and straight-forward commentary throughout her entire life. |
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| Evelyn celebrated her 90th birthday in grand style. On that occasion, at the LHA museum, Evelyn was offered the chance to fire a Civil War 12pd Napoleon cannon, which had been named after her many years before. With everybody gathered at a safe distance, the cannon was loaded. After some brief instruction, and Evelyn's reassurance that everything would be okay, she yanked the lanyard. Her 90th birthday blast resonated up the mountainside and, to everyone's surprise, shattered a window on the museum! |
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There is not enough space here to justly detail Evelyn's long eventful life. Her likes were many. She loved Vermont, especially its covered bridges. Mostly, Evelyn enjoyed her friends and acquaintances that grew to become her family. | |
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On March 26th, a standing room only audience paid tribute to Evelyn at a memorial service held at the Wilmington Congregational Church.
Though we mourn her loss we must continue to celebrate her life. A life that lacked only the trappings of modern times, but was filled with the intangible pleasures and joys that somehow seem to elude us today. |
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