Fran Lynggaard Hansen
An agricultural love story
DUMMERSTON-"I called her the Gilly Filly of Vermont," says Bill Schmidt, who is speaking about his wife Mary Lou and their farm, Elysian Hills. And with good reason.
Mary Lou Schmidt died in 2021 at the age of 94. She and Bill spent 40 years together at the farm, which produced thousands of Christmas memories for the hundreds of folks who purchased their trees.
After the flood
With help from a lot of friends, a Brattleboro business works to recover from soaking brought on by an apartment fire that set off the building’s sprinklers
BRATTLEBORO-Brian Robertshaw, owner of Beadniks at 117 Main St., had just gone downstairs - ironically, with a watering can, to get water to care for the plants inside his shop on the ground floor - when he heard an unfamiliar high-pitched hiss. "At first, I thought it might have...
‘They were tough times, but we made the best of it’
Eleanor Coleman Emery, a Dummerston nonagenarian, shares memories of growing up in West Guilford during the Great Depression
DUMMERSTON-Eleanor Emery will turn 97 years old in October - a fact that she conveys with some pride. "Who knew?" Emery asks, throwing her head back and laughing. Born at the family home in West Guilford in 1927, Emery remains as sharp as a tack. This time of year...
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Saving the Estey legacy
BRATTLEBORO-MaryJane Renaud Giroux remembers the day in 1961 when her father, Hyacinth Renaud, came home from work with some news. "I bought the Estey buildings," he told her mother, Louise. "With what?" she replied. Giroux recalls the story, laughing at it as her father would have. More than 60 years after that conversation, vestiges of the Estey Organ Company are front and center in her home, which is decorated with several framed blueprints of the instruments, including a sketch of...
Keeping the wheels turning
DUMMERSTON-Maybe you knew Joe Cook as a local banker at Vermont National Bank during his 18 years there. Perhaps you knew him when he started a second career as a lawyer at his firm, Corum Mabie Cook Prodan Angell & Secrest in Brattleboro. But more than likely, you've recognized Cook on the road on his bicycle wearing his helmet and bright cycling shirts. "I bought my bicycle 30 years ago. It's a touring bike, made for long-distance travel," the 70-year-old...
BMH Auxiliary celebrates a century of service
BRATTLEBORO-JoAnne Rogers has been a member of the Brattleboro Memorial Hospital Auxiliary since 1993. "I joined the organization and was the manager of the gift shop and the coffee shop at BMH," says Rogers, the organization's current president, who remembers "so many wonderful ladies" with whom she has worked over the years. The names of members past and present are a who's who of Brattleboro women. "If you've lived in this town for very long, you'll likely remember the BMH...
Green Mountain Camp for Girls selects new executive director
WEST DUMMERSTON-After an exhaustive search, Samantha "Sam" Lucheck has been hired as the new executive director for Green Mountain Camp for Girls (GMC). Lucheck began her new position in December 2023, relocating from Wisconsin with her family this past February. Gina Stefanelli, a member of GMC's board of directors and head of the search and transition committee, says she is happy with the choice of Lucheck, who succeeds Billie Slade, who retired in December after 12 years. "We wanted to...
A matter of choice
Don Hazelton's mind was in fine working order. But his body was failing him. "I'm not happy with what is going on inside my body," said Hazelton early in March, a couple months shy of his 94th birthday. Hazelton, in hospice care for many months, had decided to avail himself of Vermont's Act 39, known as Patient Choice and Control at the End of Life. Four days later, on March 8, a sunny, warm, spring day of his choosing, Hazelton...