CORNWALL — Doris McNally Severy, age 97, passed away peacefully on Feb. 17, 2021, at Wintergreen Residential Care Home in Brandon. She was born Dorris Lorraine McNally on Dec. 12, 1923, in Brooklyn, N.Y., daughter of Joseph F. and Edna Churchill McNally. She grew up in Brooklyn but spent summers at her relatives farm in Sudbury with her many cousins and as a counselor as a teenager at her mother’s Churchill Farm Camp in Chittenden. Dorris attended Mills College of Education in Manhattan, earning her bachelor’s degree in Education, then taught Elementary school in Goshen, N.Y.
In April 1951, she married Judson Severy and bought their beloved dairy and maple farm, Everywind Farm in Cornwall, where they raised their five children and farmed for 34 years. Always active in her much-beloved town of Cornwall, she held many positions in the area, including Cornwall School Board for 10 years, Town Librarian, Cornwall Congregational Church, Cornwall School lunch program, Addison County Humane Society, Addison County Maple Sugarmakers Association, Cornwall town auditor, Cornwall Cemetery Assoc., and most recently, 23 years as Clerk of Cornwall Town Listers. Anybody who knew her knows she usually enjoyed being treasurer.
She was one of the founders and group to organize and fundraise for the new bond-free and no-taxes-used Anna Stowell Sunderland Bingham Memorial School on the hill in Cornwall, which was built in 1960.
Music has been of highest importance to Doris since beginning piano at eight and getting her first piano at age nine. She was an accomplished pianist, organist and cellist and also played guitar and harp. In later years, she successfully accomplished her life dream of writing music, composing at least 10 piano and three handbell pieces of music. They were performed at the Weybridge Handbells concerts.
Doris was an integral part of starting Green Mountain Fiddlers String Program, a youth segment of the Vermont State Symphony Orchestra and was treasurer for 13 years. Four of her children were in the program through high school, encompassing violin, viola and cello.
She and her husband were great supporters of 4-H and FFA, where all the children were very, very active. She had a great love of animals — she always had a dog to love.
She was predeceased by her parents, her husband of 58 years, her half-brother Edward, and son-in-law Wayne Reed.
She is survived by her children, Kendall and wife Barbara of Middletown Springs; Robin and John Sullivan of Orwell; Joseph and wife Anne of Cornwall; Julia Reed of Essex Jct.; and Matthew and wife Donna of Cornwall. Eleven of the best grandchildren, 14 great-grandchildren and one nephew, Peter McNally of Buffalo, N.Y., also survive her.
Special Thank You to the staff at Wintergreen Residential Care Home in Brandon for their loving care and dedication to Doris for her last 10 years.
A memorial service will take place in the late spring. Memorial donations may be made to Cornwall Congregational Church and Addison County Humane Society/Homeward Bound or a charity of your choice.◊