Helen Emily Mosher

Helen Emily Mosher, 102, of Irasburg, VT (formerly of McLean, NY), passed away on January 23, 2017, at Bel-Aire Center in Newport, Vermont.

Helen was born in McLean on July 20, 1914, the daughter of Frank G. and Cora L. Trapp, and raised on the family farm, a place she remembered vividly and fondly for the rest of her life. During her high-school years, the family spent summers on the farm and the rest of the year in Syracuse, where Helen met Howard Mosher, her future husband, in an English class at Onondaga Valley Academy. After graduation in 1932, she and Howard spent four years at Syracuse University, where Helen graduated with Phi Beta Kappa honors and a major in French.

Following a year's work as a secretary at Cornell University, Helen married Howard at the family home in McLean in August, 1937. Until Howard's retirement from a career in teaching and school administration in the mid-1970's, the couple lived in six different communities in Upstate New York. Their longest residence was in the Central New York village of Cato, where their two sons went to high school. Bringing her life full circle, Helen and Howard spent their retirement years at the family home in McLean. Two years after her husband's death in 1996, Helen moved to Irasburg, VT, where she was cared for by her older son, Howard Frank, and his wife Phillis.

A woman with a great heart, Helen loved God, her family, and the many friends she made wherever she lived. Her gift for attentive listening made everyone she knew feel important and valued. Approaching each day with gratitude and pleasure, she delighted in conversation, books, and nature. Never forgetting her rural roots, she knew exactly what Robert Frost meant by "the need of being versed in country things."

Along with many friends made late in her life, Helen Mosher leaves behind these family members, all deeply grateful to have known and loved her: two sons, Howard Frank Mosher and Terence Mosher; their wives, Phillis Mosher and Judith Mosher; a grandson, Jacob Mosher; a granddaughter, Annie Williamson; Annie's husband, John Williamson; and two great-grandchildren, Frank James Williamson and True Williamson.

A funeral service will be held on Wednesday, May 3 at 10:30AM at McLean Community Church followed by a burial in McLean Cemetery. www.perkinsfuneralhome.com