GUIDELINES FOR PROPOSING MEMBERS We are happy to welcome new members of the Lenox Garden Club who will both enjoy the club and participate in its activities.A proposer, who is enthusiastic about the candidate and the club, will want to provide the Membership Committee with a comprehensive picture of the candidate’s qualifications.During the candidates provisional year, the proposer should, with the membership chair assist her candidate inbecoming integrated in the club and in completing therequirements of the provisional year.
A letter proposing the candidate and a minimum of two seconding letters should include the following: How long have you known the candidate? How long has your candidate lived in this area? Do you know of any other garden affiliations? Describe gardening interests:
home gardening garden design horticulture flower arranging conservation other education
Would the candidate commit to and volunteer time and talents to contribute to our projects, such as:
garden tours flower shows civic programs club administration hostessing
Do you know of any special talents the candidate could contribute to our Club? Your careful consideration will help us maintain the strong organization we all enjoy in the Lenox Garden Club. THANK YOU!
The LenoxGarden Club Post Office Box 552 Lenox, MA01240-0552 2012-2014
PRESIDENT Ellen Greendale
VICE PRESIDENT PROGRAM Sally Set VICE PRESIDENT HORTICULTURE Mary Spina VICE PRESIDENT CONSERVATION Anne Fredericks CORRESPONDING SECRETARY MaryEllen O’Brien
RECORDING SECRETARY Susan Dana
TREASURER Loretta Scheel
GARDEN CLUB OF AMERICA 14 East 60th Street New York, NY 10022 212-753-8287 212-753-0134 Fax hq@gcamerica.org
PRESIDENT OF THE GCA
Marion Hill
(Mrs. Benjamin A.)
2625 Woodward Way NW Atlanta, GA 30305-1228 (404) 231-9249 (404) 467-1228 Fax
Stephanie Bradford Sarah Boyd Pamela Breslin Jytte Brooks
Beth Carlisle Caroline Church Joan Comeau Jacqueline Connell Kimberley Crocker
Susan Dana Helen Davies Hilary Deely Marianne deGersdorff Debbie Douglas Sue Dunlaevy
Juliet Emery Martha Ewin-Booth
Jeanne Fenn Liza Fosburgh Anne Fredericks
Paula Gimblette Vaunie Graulty Ellen Greendale
Mary Harrison
Mary Howard Bridget Hubbard
Linda Jackson Tanny Jones
Helga Kaiser Carolyn King
Selina Lamb Margaret Lindermaier
Crisse MacFadyen Akkie Martens Barbara May Wendy McCain Gloria McMahon Marnie Miller Nancy Miller Elizabeth Montgomery Liz Murray
Skippy Nixon
MaryEllen O'Brien Judie Owens
Wendy Philbrick Martha Piper
Loretta Scheel Ginger Schwartz Sally Set Gail Shaw Anna Smith
Debbie Smith Leslie Snyder Mary Spina Tjasa Sprague
Lenore Sundberg
Heather Veague
Mary Stokes Waller Carol White Carol Williams
ASSOCIATE Suzette Alsop Barbara Bartle Maddy Bergen Jean Curtiss Michelle Gillett Liz Gordon
Beverly Hallock
Mary Holt Debbie Kelley
Margaret Knowlton Judith Macioge Carol McCann
Katherine McLennan
Vickie Merton Christie Philp Ina Schnell Martha Selke Rosemarie Siegel
The LenoxGarden Club Past Presidents 1911-2006
*Mr. Richard Goodman *Mr. Thomas Shields Clarke *Miss Gertrude Parsons *Mrs. Bernhard Hoffman *Miss Heloise Meyer *Miss Georgiana W. Sargent *Mrs. Carl A. de Gersdorff 1933-1936 *Mrs. Owen Johnson *Mrs. Rodney Procter *Mrs. William Marshall Bullitt *Mrs. William Felton Barrett *Miss Mabel Choate *Mrs. John L. Senior *Mrs. Peter Malevski-Malevitch 1951-1955 *Mrs. W. E. D. Stokes 1955-1958 *Mrs. Robert S. Hibbard 1958-1961 Mrs. Peter Van S. Rice 1961-1963 *Mrs. Elmer A. Euston 1963-1965 *Mrs. Lawrence H. Bloedel 1965-1967 *Mrs. C. Kenneth Fuller 1967-1969 Mrs. William F. Barrett, Jr. 1969-1972 Mrs. Carline N. Church 1972-1974 Mrs. Robert C. Alsop 1974-1976
*Mrs. Ellwood R. Burdsall 1976-1978
Mrs. Terry Hallock 1978-1980 *Mrs. Robert C. Kellham 1980-1982 *Mrs. Thomas Perry 1982-1984 Mrs. John Bergen 1984-1986 *Mrs. Milos Krofta 1986-1988 Mrs. H. Ashley Smith, Jr. 1988-1990 Mrs. Robert Pollard 1990-1992 Mrs. Harry Harrison 1992-1994 Mrs. Pieter W. Fosburgh 1994-1996 Mrs. Elizabeth Gordon 1996-1998 *Mrs. Winthrop S. Emmet 1998-2000 Mrs. Edmund L. Dana 2000-2002 Mrs. David Siegel 2002-2004 Mrs. Carl de Gersdorff 2004-2006
Mrs. Christopher May 2006-2008
Mrs. Robert Comeau 2008-2010
Mrs. Harry Harrison
2010-2011
Mrs. Robert Comeau
Mrs. Edmund Dane
2011-2012
*Deceased
In Memoriam
Mary Jane Emmet Lenox Garden Club member since 1964
The Berkshire Eagle - May 25, 2011 LENOX — Mary Jane Emmet, 74, died unexpectedly on Sunday, May 22nd at her home in Lenox. Born to the Shreve family of well known Boston merchants, Mary Jane McGuckin was 6 or 7 when she and her mother Jane began moving between Army bases to accompany her father William as he trained with the 10th Mountain Division before serving in European combat during World War II. Mary Jane, widely known as Googie, a spoof on her family name, attended St. Mary’s in the Mountains in Littleton, N.H. and Vassar College. Finding greater interests beyond Vassar, she dropped out, but later returned to earn her degree in midlife, a typical sample of her perseverance. After moving to the Berkshires in 1961 with her first husband, the jazz musician Francis Laidlaw, Googie became a much admired schoolteacher (kindergarten, first and fourth grades) at Berkshire Country Day School in Lenox. She eventually served as assistant headmaster. In 1976, she married her second husband, Winthrop Emmet, a prominent New York lawyer who helped prosecute Nazi leaders at the Nuremberg trials. A perfect match, they spent 25 wonderful years together. Theirs was an inspirational love. He died in 2001. She was a co-founder of Mary Stuart Collections, a well-known store in Lenox, and worked there for many years. She volunteered much of her time at Trinity Episcopal Church in Lenox, serving as Senior Warden and in other capacities, most recently teaching Godly Play to the youngest parishioners. She loved gardening and was active for many years in the Lenox Garden Club. She was a certified Master Gardener and also served as a trustee of the Berkshire Botanical Garden. She could often be seen working in her garden with her dog Lucky by her side and parrot Mandy chatting in the background. She was committed to a life of learning and was a devoted student of history, with an encyclopedic knowledge of World War II. A plainspoken woman of impeccable charm, dry wit, and New England wisdom, Mary Jane Emmet was cherished by admirers of all ages in her multiple roles as wife, mother, grandmother, aunt, godmother, merchant, teacher, gardener, church warden, and irreplaceable friend. She was one of a kind. She is survived by two sons, Francis Criss Stewart Laidlaw and William Churchward Laidlaw, her daughter, Christian Pierce (aka Annie) Selke, and grandchildren Hal Laidlaw, Grace Laidlaw, Charlotte Selke and Mary Laidlaw. FUNERAL NOTICE: A memorial service is scheduled for 11 a.m., June 4th, at Trinity Church in Lenox. In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to the Berkshire Botanical Garden, Mary Jane Emmet Memorial Fund for Garden interns or a donation to the American Red Cross, all in care of the ROCHE FUNERAL HOME, 120 Main Street, Lenox, MA, 01240.
Mary Jane Emmet (Mrs. Winthrop S. Emmet)
Mary Jane or Googie as she was more often called by her moniker, was a wonderful gardener, especially skilled in horticulture. She was endlessly knowledgeable about all kinds of plants, and hydrangeas were a recent interest. She could grow anything, and was a great propagator, and was very enthusiastic about the Lenox Garden Club’s Peach Tree Project.She also encouraged novices with advice and hands-on help, and was always helpful with horticulturalworkshops. She was very creative as a garden designer (especially at her new house , she was creating a cloud hedge, and had wonderful espaliered apple trees.) Googie created great topiaries from box wood she had started from cuttings. She was always game to go on expeditions to nurseries or gardens to see what was new or what was in bloom.She had a subtle and sophisticated sense of color and definite opinions about what would and wouldn't do in the garden.
Susan Dana The Lenox Garden Club
Gail Taylor Meyer Gail Taylor Meyer of Stratham, NH and Dataw Island, SC died October 17, 2010 of ovarian cancer.Born March 13, 1945 in Saranac Lake, NY to Dr. Walter and Grace Taylor. She was a graduate of Emma Willard School, Troy, NY and Colby Sawyer College, New London, NH. Prior to starting her career, she spent two years in France where she became fluent in French. Most of her professional career was spent in New York City at several investment management firms, retiring after 18 years from Alliance Capital Management. Throughout her life, Gail was an accomplished athlete.As a child she was an avid skier and skater-competing regularly in both sports.In 1954 she won the North American indoor speed skating championships, midget division. As an adult, she was a dedicated runner and in 1984 she finishedthe New York City Marathon. Later in life, she enjoyed sculling. Gail moved from Brooklyn, NY to the Berkshires in 1991.There she was a Member and Treasurer of the Lenox Garden Club, a Garden Club of American affiliate.In 2004 she and her husband moved to Stratham, NH and in June 2006 purchased a beautiful home at Dataw Island, SC (St. Helena’s Island, SC). She is survived by her husband John DeBard Meyer; daughter Lindsey Shuford Collins and husband Jay of Cumberland Foreside, Maine; grandchildren Alden John Collins and Abigail Taylor Collins.She is also survived by her sister Elizabeth T. Frank and husband Charles and nephews Garrett Frank and Reade Frank. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Mass General Hospital, 165 Cambridge Street, Suite 600, Boston, MA 02114 for the Gynecologic Oncology Research Fund
Helen Perry
Helen Warrington Roberts Perry died peacefully on July 8 at Kimball Farms in Lenox. She was married to Tod Perry (Thomas Doanne Perry, Jr.) for 58 years prior to his death in 1997. Helen attended Moorestown Friends School in Moorestown, New Jersey and majored in botany at Vassar College. She lived in Philadelphia, PA and in Boston, Cambridge, Arlington, Hingham and West Stockbridge, MA. She was predeceased by her daughter, Judith and is survived by her son Doane of Cambridge, and Richmond, MA. who is married to Karen Carmean, and son Rodney of Rochester, NY who is married to Joyce Perry. During her husband's career as Manager of the Boston Symphony, Helen travelled oftern with the Orchestra and was noted for her warm and generous entertaing of musicians and artists from all over the world. Helen was tireless in imptoving institutions in the communities in which she lived. Including the Hingham Public Library, the Lenix Library and the Lenox Garden Club. Born a Quaker, Helen co-founded and led the friends Meetings in Hingham and in Lenox.
FUNERAL NOTICE: Donations in lieu of flowers should be made to the Lenox Library Association, in care of the Roche Funeral Home, 120 Main Street, Lenox, MA 01240. A memorial service is being planned for late summer and a celebration for the autumn.
Patricia Ann Birt Morse, 1927-2010, born April 26, 1927, in Racine, Wis., daughter of Harry and Cathryn Birt of Pittsfield, and Vero Beach, Fla., died Jan. 25, 2010, at Kimball Farms, 235 Walker Street, Lenox, MA.
She leaves her husband, Thomas Morse, MD, son of the late Darwin and Kate Morse of Green Meads Farm in Richmond; her sister, Barbara Dow (William) of Philadelphia, Pa., South Dartmouth, and Vero Beach, Fla.; her children, Jeffery Morse (Jennifer) of Richmond, who trains carriage driving horses at the family farm; Kate Morse Erwin, MD, psychiatrist, Sudbury; Amy Morse (and partner Lily Kane), director of the Center for the Development of Coaching and Math Leadership, teacher and author, Northampton; Peter Morse, consulting mechanical engineer, Tucson, Ariz.; her grandchildren, Joshua and Jason Morse of Housatonic; Chloe and Lila Morse-Harding of Cambridge, Elliot and Cathryn Erwin of Somerville; Lucas, James and Gabrielle Morse of Tucson, Ariz.; and her great-grandson, Jackson Morse of Housatonic.
Patty attended Mary Burnham School and was a member of the Vassar College class of 1949. Patty and Tom Morse were married at the Pittsfield Country Club on June 26, 1948. After Tom's graduation from Cornell University and medical internship in New York City, Tom and Patty moved to Brookline. Patty served as Secretary of the Junior League of Boston from 1950-1960.
In 1960, Tom and Patty moved to Ohio where Tom practiced pediatric surgery at Children's Hospital in Columbus. Patty was a member of the Junior League from 1961-1979, acting Chairman of PLAN, an award program for excellence in landscape and architecture, and served on the Board of Planned Parenthood of Columbus. Patty was honored with the Cultural Arts Award of the Urban League of Columbus, Ohio. A talented cook, Patty organized and taught cooking classes for "Good Things", a gourmet kitchen and gift shop in Columbus.
In 1980, Tom and Patty moved back to Berkshire County and built their home, "Allways", at Green Meads Farm in Richmond. Patty was a real estate agent for Cohen and White Associates, Church St., Lenox, from 1985-1993. An active volunteer, she served on the Board of the Trustees of Reservation's "Naumkeag" in Stockbridge from 1985 to 1992, and was a member of the Boston Symphony Executive Board and the BSO Association of Volunteers at Tanglewood (1980-1993). Patty, a strong believer in land conservation efforts, was a founding member of the Richmond Land Trust and member of the Land Trust Board from 1989-1993.
Patty especially enjoyed time with her family and friends at Salter's Point, South Dartmouth, their home overlooking Buzzard's Bay and in her beautiful home on Riomar Drive in Vero Beach, Fla. Patty was a master gardener, planting and maintaining beautiful gardens at home and as a volunteer. She was an active member of the Lenox Garden Club and the Garden Club of Buzzard's Bay. She was a Trustee of the Berkshire Garden Center from 1981 - 1991. Dear to Patty's heart was the flourishing revival of the McKee Botanical Gardens, in Vero Beach, Fla. She volunteered for many years at McKee and was honored to support the rebirth of these special gardens from a state of almost total disrepair to a historic Florida landmark, now listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
She was loved and adored by her husband, Tom, her life's companion, who, from New York to Boston to Columbus to Vero Beach and finally, home to Lenox, firmly believed the best course of action was always, "To follow Patty." In the eyes of Patty's many good friends in Ohio, Florida and Massachusetts, she was the consummate volunteer, a strong and athletic tennis player, a wonderful cook, a knowledgeable, enthusiastic gardener and a charitable and thoughtful friend. Her children know her as a devoted mother, grandmother and mother-in-law. Everyone who ever experienced "Patty Power" admired her remarkable ability to selflessly do the right thing at the right time. In our eyes, she was ageless, full of spirit, and kind. MEMORIAL NOTICE: A summertime memorial service at Salter's Point is planned. The family especially thanks Hospice of the Berkshires for their indispensible, attentive, kind and loving care. In lieu of flowers, the family would be honored to know that donations were made in Patty's name for the continuing care of the McKee Botanical Gardens, 350 US Highway #1, Vero Beach, FL 32962
Joyce A. Vorman 1926 - 2010
LGC Member since 2000
Joyce Alford Vorman of 235 Walker St., Lenox, died Wednesday, May 12, 2010. She was born in Lake Charles, La., on April 25, 1926, daughter of Steve and Joyce Powell Alford. She was a graduate of Louisiana State University, graduating at the top of her class with a degree in Commerce. She worked as an accountant in the finance field. She lived in Canada from 1957 to the mid 1980s. She was a very active member of the Stockbridge Congregational Church. Joyce was a past board member of Naumkeag, a past board member of the Stockbridge Library, and was active in the Berkshire Botanical Gardens and the Literacy Network. Her husband of 50 years Edward, died in 1998. She leaves many loving friends, two daughters, Constance Vorman and her husband, David Sloterbeck, of Weston, Vt., and Vanessa Maxwell and her husband, Robert W., of Farmington, Conn.; one sister, Jane Sims, of Lynchburg, Va.; one sister-in-law, Betty Dufrene of Lake Charles, La.; three grandchildren, Duncan, Spenser and Kennon Maxwell, and two step-grandchildren, Oscar and Caswell Sloterbeck. MEMORIAL NOTICE: A memorial service for Joyce Alford Vorman will be held at a later date to be announced. There are no calling hours. Expressions of sympathy in Joyce’s memory may be made to Construct in care of the BIRCHES-ROY FUNERAL HOME 33 South Street Great Barrington, MA 01230, which is in charge of arrangements
Gertrude Burdsall Mrs. Ellwood R. Burdsall
LGC member since 1961 LGC President 1976 - 1978 Died September 2006
