Helen K. Crossman

Helen was born in Springfield, Massachusetts, on February 17, 1931, daughter of Beatrice Julia (Holman) and Wayne Lincoln Ferguson. At an early age, her parents divorced and Helen and her older sister Doris moved from Chicopee, Mass. to Windham, Vt. when their mother married Lee Giles. Helen and Doris attended the one-room Windham School about a mile from the Giles’ homestead, getting there and back on foot, unless the snow was too deep, when Lee would fetch them with the family horse and buggy lit with kerosene lamps.

As a teenager, Helen stayed with relatives in Chester during the week in order to attend Chester High School, where she excelled in her secretarial and book-keeping studies and was accepted at Katharine Gibbs School in Mass. However, Helen did not leave Vermont, since during her high school years she had fallen in love with one of her classmates, Everett ‘Slim’ Crossman of Londonderry . In 1950, they were married and soon settled and remained on Huntley Mountain between several generations of Everett’s family during their long and happy life together.

When Helen joined the Crossman family, she became ‘Katy’ to family and friends in order to distinguish her from her mother in law, also Helen Catherine Crossman. Helen worked briefly at the original Adams Market in Londonderry before she and Everett started their family. As they raised four children in the 1950s, Helen became a model homemaker, perfecting her baking and sewing skills, while Everett supported the family, first as a woodsman and logger, later as an operating engineer. Katy joined other women in the family and neighborhood to establish the Friendship Club of Thompsonburg, a local non-profit organization created to serve the community with thoughtful gestures such as chicken pie suppers at the former Thompsonburg Schoolhouse and individual acknowledgements of life events including sunshine baskets and hand-made patchwork quilts. As her nest began to empty in the 70s, Helen found a position at the Vermont Country Store, in their warehouse and worked there for over 20 years.

Katy happily devoted her life to her growing family. Living side by side, birthdays and holidays involved frequent large extended-family gatherings in the neighborhood or at the family camp on Lake Champlain. Sundays were always family time – often picnics ‘down front’ at the pond, car rides to visit other relatives or trips to the drive-in with the kids packed in the back of the station wagon. In retirement, Helen, Everett and Henry, their 1947 Ford Pickup, belonged to the Antique Truck Historical Society (A.T.H.S) and spent time camping and traveling to bluegrass festivals with their many lifelong friends. Later on, Katy looked forward to weekly outings and chats with ‘the girls’ who gathered on Tuesdays for ‘coffee break’.

In 2009, Helen was predeceased by her husband of 59 years, and previously by her mother, father, stepfather and sister. She now leaves behind a son, Robert Crossman of Ocean Isle Beach, N.C.; three daughters, Sharon Crossman and Kathy Hopkins, both of Londonderry, and Janet Goodwin of Weston; sister in law Evelyn Guy of North Springfield; a sister in law Adella Crossman of Denton, North Carolina. Six grandchildren; Chad Prouty, Taylor Prouty, Robert Crossman II, Ivy Crossman, Natalie Hopkins, Mallory Hopkins, and step-granddaughter, Jessica Falker; as well as seven great-grandchildren and several nieces and nephews.

A celebration of Helen’s life will be held at the Windham Congregational Church on Saturday, January 2, 2016 at 2PM. There will be no calling hours. A private burial will be held at the convenience of the family.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be sent to Londonderry Rescue, or other local charity of choice.

Arrangements under the direction of Adams Funeral Homes, Chester, Vermont.