Elizabeth A. Hawley

Elizabeth Ann Hawley died June 15, 2017, in Northampton, MA. Elizabeth was born in Frankfort, Germany on May 12, 1949, the youngest daughter of John and Katherine Hawley. Her father worked for the US government in the Foreign Service; her mother worked at Woods Hole during the war. She spent her first seven years in Italy and spoke Italian and French fluently before learning the English language. Growing up she lived in Bolivia, Canada, Paris and, in the USA: Connecticut, and Washington, DC. She remembered being present at Martin Luther King's "I Have A Dream" speech in Washington. Her parents' first home of ownership was on Vinalhaven Island in Maine, where she vacationed every summer. She graduated high school in Paris, France, and moved to California. She studied Dance at New Mexico University. She told many stories of living abroad with wit and spoke of the joy and difficulties of life, as the youngest of three siblings. She trained as a dental assistant at Tufts and graduated in 1985. She had many careers and was known for her work as an accomplished painter of portraits and landscapes. She met her husband-to-be in Arlington and moved to Plainfield Mass. They built and moved into their first house in 1990. She did an art and historical study of Route 116 in collaboration with Joan Boryta for the Plainfield Historical society before the road was reconstructed and paved in the early 'nineties. It consisted of photographs and colored pencil drawings of homes and surrounding landscapes. She worked as a cook at McCuster's in Shelburne Falls and the Whale Inn before changing to Social work at the Center for Human Resource. She loved to garden and had a passion for lupines which brought back from the Island and shared and spread in her home town. She loved her home, reading, swimming, running and her two children. As a devoted mother she left work to care for her children. She was predeceased by her parents and beloved sister Beatrice. Who are at rest in Vinalhaven, Maine and will be joined by her at this final resting place. She left with great sadness her children ErinRose and Joshua and her husband Hendrik "Rick" Messenger as well as her sister, Katherine Hawley and husband Stephen Mathewson, their daughters Sophie and Marion and her two sons Samuel and James Shazad. Also nephew John Burkhart, his wife, Elizabeth and children, Ian Jeremy and Avery; cousin Catherine Williams and her husband, Ron. A memorial service will be held for Elizabeth at 3:00 P.M., Saturday, June 24, at the West Cummington Congregational Church. A pot-luck reception will follow at the Parish House, 27 West Main Street, Cummington, MA. Memorial donations may be made to Heifer International, 1 World Avenue, Little Rock, AR 72202.

Elizabeth A. Hawley

May 12, 1949 - June 15, 2017