Ruth Margaret (Spellman) Terwilliger, who was born and raised on her parents' farm on Hall Hill Road and lived in Somers most of her life, died Monday, April 10, 2006, at her home, 20 Colton Road. She would have been 100 years old on May 23, 2006.
A retired elementary school teacher, Mrs. Terwilliger was the youngest of the six children of Frank and Estella Spellman. She began her education at the former Hall Hill one-room schoolhouse where at one time, all six Spellman children were pupils. She never tired of telling of the importance her parents placed on education. While their own formal educations ended at the elementary school level, her parents made sure that all six children attended college. The boys all went to Brown University, the girls to normal school. The story is that as each child reached college age, the parents sold a piece of the family farm to provide tuition funds. Mrs. Terwilliger graduated from Enfield High School in Thompsonville. She drove a horse and buggy to school, leaving them at a farmhouse in Somersville during the day. After graduation she attended and graduated from the Willimantic Connecticut Normal School, (Teacher's College). Later, when she was in her forties, married, and the mother of a grown son, she returned to school, graduating in 1959 from American International College in Springfield, Mass., with a B.A. degree with honors. She was the head of her class and the marshall in the graduation procession. Her first teaching experience was for one year at the Hall Hill School. Later she taught at South School, Thompsonville, and the Higgins School in Enfield, retiring in 1971. She also worked one summer at the well known Terwilliger State Line Lunch Stand, owned by her husband's family. During World War II she worked in the production department at GE in Pittsfield, Mass. She married Ross W. Terwilliger, a fellow classmate at Enfield High School in 1927, and they were the parents of Donald F. Terwilliger who survives her. Mr. Terwilliger, a former Somers Town Selectman, died in 1998. Her brothers and sisters, all deceased, were John Franklin Spellman, a gold medal winner in the 1924 Olympics; Pauline Corbin Potter, Robert Harris Spellman, Dorothy Estella Hutton and Dr. Frank A. Spellman. Her childhood memories of growing up on the farm were of a different era; helping to make butter and lard, picking blueberries for canning and market, feeding the horses and other animals, watching her mother do laundry by boiling the clothes in a copper kettle. The doctor arrived by horse and buggy and the kitchen table was the operating table when the children's tonsils were removed. She was in college before the family home had electricity and indoor plumbing. "Every holiday we did something special," she said in a memory book compiled by her family. For fun they had corn husking, May baskets and a "wonderful swing on the Black Walnut tree by the house.
She is survived by her son, who says of his mother, "she was a wonderful mother, a special aunt to all my cousins and a loving grandmother and great-grandmother. She was always lively and personable and will be fondly remembered by her many relatives and friends." Other survivors are three grandchildren, Michael Spellman Terwilliger of Santa Rosa, Calif., Kurt Webster Terwilliger of Franklin, Mass., and Betsy Ann Terwilliger of Alpharetta, Ga.; six great grandchildren also survive; as well as many nieces and nephews.
Funeral services and burial will be private in the New West Somers Cemetery.
There were no calling hours.
Arrangements were through the Potter Funeral Home, Willimantic.
For online memorial guestbook, please visit:
www.potterfh.com
[Published in The Journal Inquirer (Manchester, CT) - Tuesday, April 11, 2006]
A retired elementary school teacher, Mrs. Terwilliger was the youngest of the six children of Frank and Estella Spellman. She began her education at the former Hall Hill one-room schoolhouse where at one time, all six Spellman children were pupils. She never tired of telling of the importance her parents placed on education. While their own formal educations ended at the elementary school level, her parents made sure that all six children attended college. The boys all went to Brown University, the girls to normal school. The story is that as each child reached college age, the parents sold a piece of the family farm to provide tuition funds. Mrs. Terwilliger graduated from Enfield High School in Thompsonville. She drove a horse and buggy to school, leaving them at a farmhouse in Somersville during the day. After graduation she attended and graduated from the Willimantic Connecticut Normal School, (Teacher's College). Later, when she was in her forties, married, and the mother of a grown son, she returned to school, graduating in 1959 from American International College in Springfield, Mass., with a B.A. degree with honors. She was the head of her class and the marshall in the graduation procession. Her first teaching experience was for one year at the Hall Hill School. Later she taught at South School, Thompsonville, and the Higgins School in Enfield, retiring in 1971. She also worked one summer at the well known Terwilliger State Line Lunch Stand, owned by her husband's family. During World War II she worked in the production department at GE in Pittsfield, Mass. She married Ross W. Terwilliger, a fellow classmate at Enfield High School in 1927, and they were the parents of Donald F. Terwilliger who survives her. Mr. Terwilliger, a former Somers Town Selectman, died in 1998. Her brothers and sisters, all deceased, were John Franklin Spellman, a gold medal winner in the 1924 Olympics; Pauline Corbin Potter, Robert Harris Spellman, Dorothy Estella Hutton and Dr. Frank A. Spellman. Her childhood memories of growing up on the farm were of a different era; helping to make butter and lard, picking blueberries for canning and market, feeding the horses and other animals, watching her mother do laundry by boiling the clothes in a copper kettle. The doctor arrived by horse and buggy and the kitchen table was the operating table when the children's tonsils were removed. She was in college before the family home had electricity and indoor plumbing. "Every holiday we did something special," she said in a memory book compiled by her family. For fun they had corn husking, May baskets and a "wonderful swing on the Black Walnut tree by the house.
She is survived by her son, who says of his mother, "she was a wonderful mother, a special aunt to all my cousins and a loving grandmother and great-grandmother. She was always lively and personable and will be fondly remembered by her many relatives and friends." Other survivors are three grandchildren, Michael Spellman Terwilliger of Santa Rosa, Calif., Kurt Webster Terwilliger of Franklin, Mass., and Betsy Ann Terwilliger of Alpharetta, Ga.; six great grandchildren also survive; as well as many nieces and nephews.
Funeral services and burial will be private in the New West Somers Cemetery.
There were no calling hours.
Arrangements were through the Potter Funeral Home, Willimantic.
For online memorial guestbook, please visit:
www.potterfh.com
[Published in The Journal Inquirer (Manchester, CT) - Tuesday, April 11, 2006]
Ruth Margaret (Spellman) Terwilliger, who was born and raised on her parents' farm on Hall Hill Road and lived in Somers most of her life, died Monday, April 10, 2006, at her home, 20 Colton Road. She would have been 100 years old on May 23, 2006.
A retired elementary school teacher, Mrs. Terwilliger was the youngest of the six children of Frank and Estella Spellman. She began her education at the former Hall Hill one-room schoolhouse where at one time, all six Spellman children were pupils. She never tired of telling of the importance her parents placed on education. While their own formal educations ended at the elementary school level, her parents made sure that all six children attended college. The boys all went to Brown University, the girls to normal school. The story is that as each child reached college age, the parents sold a piece of the family farm to provide tuition funds. Mrs. Terwilliger graduated from Enfield High School in Thompsonville. She drove a horse and buggy to school, leaving them at a farmhouse in Somersville during the day. After graduation she attended and graduated from the Willimantic Connecticut Normal School, (Teacher's College). Later, when she was in her forties, married, and the mother of a grown son, she returned to school, graduating in 1959 from American International College in Springfield, Mass., with a B.A. degree with honors. She was the head of her class and the marshall in the graduation procession. Her first teaching experience was for one year at the Hall Hill School. Later she taught at South School, Thompsonville, and the Higgins School in Enfield, retiring in 1971. She also worked one summer at the well known Terwilliger State Line Lunch Stand, owned by her husband's family. During World War II she worked in the production department at GE in Pittsfield, Mass. She married Ross W. Terwilliger, a fellow classmate at Enfield High School in 1927, and they were the parents of Donald F. Terwilliger who survives her. Mr. Terwilliger, a former Somers Town Selectman, died in 1998. Her brothers and sisters, all deceased, were John Franklin Spellman, a gold medal winner in the 1924 Olympics; Pauline Corbin Potter, Robert Harris Spellman, Dorothy Estella Hutton and Dr. Frank A. Spellman. Her childhood memories of growing up on the farm were of a different era; helping to make butter and lard, picking blueberries for canning and market, feeding the horses and other animals, watching her mother do laundry by boiling the clothes in a copper kettle. The doctor arrived by horse and buggy and the kitchen table was the operating table when the children's tonsils were removed. She was in college before the family home had electricity and indoor plumbing. "Every holiday we did something special," she said in a memory book compiled by her family. For fun they had corn husking, May baskets and a "wonderful swing on the Black Walnut tree by the house.
She is survived by her son, who says of his mother, "she was a wonderful mother, a special aunt to all my cousins and a loving grandmother and great-grandmother. She was always lively and personable and will be fondly remembered by her many relatives and friends." Other survivors are three grandchildren, Michael Spellman Terwilliger of Santa Rosa, Calif., Kurt Webster Terwilliger of Franklin, Mass., and Betsy Ann Terwilliger of Alpharetta, Ga.; six great grandchildren also survive; as well as many nieces and nephews.
Funeral services and burial will be private in the New West Somers Cemetery.
There were no calling hours.
Arrangements were through the Potter Funeral Home, Willimantic.
For online memorial guestbook, please visit:
www.potterfh.com
[Published in The Journal Inquirer (Manchester, CT) - Tuesday, April 11, 2006]
A retired elementary school teacher, Mrs. Terwilliger was the youngest of the six children of Frank and Estella Spellman. She began her education at the former Hall Hill one-room schoolhouse where at one time, all six Spellman children were pupils. She never tired of telling of the importance her parents placed on education. While their own formal educations ended at the elementary school level, her parents made sure that all six children attended college. The boys all went to Brown University, the girls to normal school. The story is that as each child reached college age, the parents sold a piece of the family farm to provide tuition funds. Mrs. Terwilliger graduated from Enfield High School in Thompsonville. She drove a horse and buggy to school, leaving them at a farmhouse in Somersville during the day. After graduation she attended and graduated from the Willimantic Connecticut Normal School, (Teacher's College). Later, when she was in her forties, married, and the mother of a grown son, she returned to school, graduating in 1959 from American International College in Springfield, Mass., with a B.A. degree with honors. She was the head of her class and the marshall in the graduation procession. Her first teaching experience was for one year at the Hall Hill School. Later she taught at South School, Thompsonville, and the Higgins School in Enfield, retiring in 1971. She also worked one summer at the well known Terwilliger State Line Lunch Stand, owned by her husband's family. During World War II she worked in the production department at GE in Pittsfield, Mass. She married Ross W. Terwilliger, a fellow classmate at Enfield High School in 1927, and they were the parents of Donald F. Terwilliger who survives her. Mr. Terwilliger, a former Somers Town Selectman, died in 1998. Her brothers and sisters, all deceased, were John Franklin Spellman, a gold medal winner in the 1924 Olympics; Pauline Corbin Potter, Robert Harris Spellman, Dorothy Estella Hutton and Dr. Frank A. Spellman. Her childhood memories of growing up on the farm were of a different era; helping to make butter and lard, picking blueberries for canning and market, feeding the horses and other animals, watching her mother do laundry by boiling the clothes in a copper kettle. The doctor arrived by horse and buggy and the kitchen table was the operating table when the children's tonsils were removed. She was in college before the family home had electricity and indoor plumbing. "Every holiday we did something special," she said in a memory book compiled by her family. For fun they had corn husking, May baskets and a "wonderful swing on the Black Walnut tree by the house.
She is survived by her son, who says of his mother, "she was a wonderful mother, a special aunt to all my cousins and a loving grandmother and great-grandmother. She was always lively and personable and will be fondly remembered by her many relatives and friends." Other survivors are three grandchildren, Michael Spellman Terwilliger of Santa Rosa, Calif., Kurt Webster Terwilliger of Franklin, Mass., and Betsy Ann Terwilliger of Alpharetta, Ga.; six great grandchildren also survive; as well as many nieces and nephews.
Funeral services and burial will be private in the New West Somers Cemetery.
There were no calling hours.
Arrangements were through the Potter Funeral Home, Willimantic.
For online memorial guestbook, please visit:
www.potterfh.com
[Published in The Journal Inquirer (Manchester, CT) - Tuesday, April 11, 2006]
Inscription
Wife of Ross Webster Terwilliger
Family Members
Sponsored by Ancestry
Advertisement
See more Terwilliger or Spellman memorials in:
- West Cemetery Terwilliger or Spellman
- Somers Terwilliger or Spellman
- Tolland County Terwilliger or Spellman
- Connecticut Terwilliger or Spellman
- USA Terwilliger or Spellman
- Find a Grave Terwilliger or Spellman
Explore more
Sponsored by Ancestry
Advertisement
