LOIS ANN GUERNSEY WOOLSEY

MIDDLEBURY — Lois Ann Guernsey Woolsey was born on June 8, 1935, in West Hartford, Conn. 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, Fla., 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.◊