Coralie Hansen

Coralie was born in Wenham, Massachusetts on February 13, 1930. She was the daughter of the late Vernon and Edith Childs, and the older sister of the late Nancy Childs Wood. She graduated from Topsfield High School in Topsfield, Massachusetts in 1947, and from Wheaton College in 1952. That same year, she met her future husband James C. Sanderson (Jim) at Yale University, and they married shortly after she graduated from Wheaton. They started their married life in Columbus, Ohio, where their first child, John, was born in 1953. After returning to NH, Jeffrey was born in 1955 and Sherill in 1957. They also lived for a short period in the suburbs of Baltimore, Maryland, where Ian was born in 1961. Sadly, Coralie was predeceased by two of her children, John in 1973 and Sherill in 1997.

Coralie cherished being a homemaker and mother, and she was the force behind her children’s passion for the outdoors and sports. Coralie was a woman of many talents and interests. She loved interior design, and had a keen eye for colonial era design and furnishings. She decorated a number of homes and restaurants, and contributed to the accurate period restoration of the Franklin Pierce Homestead in Hillsboro, where she was a docent for many years.

Always active, and athletic, she was a professional ski instructor at Pat’s Peak in Henniker. She was an avid hiker and outdoors woman, who loved to hike local mountains, including Mount Washington and Mount Kearsarge, which she did well into her 70’s. She also enjoyed painting and singing: her homes were filled with her artwork and music. . Coralie also was an intrepid traveler, especially to the places where her kids had ventured. She visited much of Europe, camped in the bush of Ethiopia, explored Petra in Jordan, Egypt and the Sinai Peninsula, and had an adventurous safari in Tanzania and Kenya, where she and her lunch were dive bombed by an African kite. She was a member of the First Congregational Church in Hopkinton and the Smith Memorial Congregational Church in Hillsboro, where she sang in the choir and volunteered as a Stephen minister.

Jim and Coralie divorced in 1975. As Coralie would say, “she then met the love of her life”, Herbert Hansen (Herb), and they were married soon after. The couple lived in New Jersey for a number of years before returning to New Hampshire, where they resided primarily in Hillsborough and then later in Hopkinton.

Coralie is survived by her children Jeff Sanderson (Andréa) of Alexandria, Virginia, and their boys Benjamin, Aidan and Nicholas, and her son Ian Sanderson (Anne) of Lincoln, Massachusetts, and their children John, Margaret, Paige and James. She is also survived by her late daughter Sherill’s husband and children, Richard R.S. Smith, Hadley Smith (Cameron), Jennison Smith Kops (Greg), and Richard S. Smith (Savannah). Coralie was also a great grandmother to Oliver Smith and Charlie Kops. Coralie is also survived by five Hansen step-sons, Herbert "Skip", Peter, Jeffrey, James, and John.

The family would like to express their deep gratitude to the staff of Havenwood Nursing Home and to Amedysis VNA Hospice for their loving and compassionate care of Coralie during her final years. A memorial service celebrating Coralie’s life will be planned for the spring in Hopkinton, New Hampshire.

Gifts in Coralie’s honor can be made to the N.H. Historical Society and the Havenwood Heritage Heights Resident’s Caregiver Account.