Sallie Lee Dixon Olmstead, 97, of Nourse Hollow Road, passed away unexpectedly Wednesday evening, September 24, 2014, at Brattleboro Memorial Hospital, Brattleboro, VT.
She was born in Wagoner, NC, on July 23, 1917, to Arthur and Virginia Dixon.
When she was at a young age, her family moved to Greenbrier County, WV, where she grew up on the family farm with her nine brothers and sisters.
Following graduation from Berea College in Berea, KY, in 1938, she moved to Vermont to teach home economics at Kurn Hattin Homes in Saxons River, VT. There she met her future husband, George D. Olmstead. They were married on November 28, 1941, in Braintree, MA.
Following her husband’s discharge from the United States Coast Guard in 1946, she returned to Vermont, eventually settling in Dummerston, where they raised their six children.
She worked as a cook at the East Dummerston School and also was a close companion of very close friends, George and Helen Vaughan.
Some of her favorite pass times were reading, cooking, visiting friends, attending PTA meetings, going on Home Demonstration Group meetings with her “Stitch & B***h Club, entertaining them with her “slightly dusty” stories, and taking up bowling at the young age of 65.
She was very active in the local community by volunteering her time at the church apple pie festival every year and their strawberry supper. She was a past member of the Rebekah Lodge in Saxons River.
Sallie is survived by her children, Sallie May of Vernon, VT, James Olmstead (Jane) of Newfane, VT, Elizabeth Wright (George) of West Chesterfield, NH, Daniel Olmstead (Judi) of Marlboro, VT, and Ellen Olmstead of Dummerston; seven grandchildren; seven great-grandchildren, and two great-great-grandchildren; three brothers, Frank, William, and Laddie; two sisters, Edna and Peggy; two special cousins, Sam Bare and Sally Blankenship; as well as numerous nieces and nephews.
She was predeceased by her husband in 2003; her daughter, Mary Therieau in 2012; grandson, Keith Wright in 1989; one brother, Arthur Dixon Jr.; and three sisters, Bonnie Gwinn, Lola Ray Viers, and Luwanda Viers.
A memorial service in celebration of her life will take place at Dummerston Congregational Church in the springtime (2015) at a date and time to be announced by the funeral home.
In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Dummerston Congregational Church Memorial Fund, c/o Catherine Miller, 18 Canoe Brook Road, Apt. 1, East Dummerston, VT 05346.
Information submitted by McCraw Funeral Home in Lewisburg.
Obituary originally published in the October 6, 2014, edition of the West Virginia Daily News.
