Abby (Holmes) Potter

ARMENIA MOUNTAIN, PA-Abby Holmes Potter, a long-time summer resident of Armenia Mountain, Troy, Pennsylvania, died on March 25, 2008, at Fox Run,her home since 2007. Together with Tom Potter (1917-2003), her husband of nearly 62 years, she enjoyed the beauty and tranquility of the Pennsylvania mountains and the ancestral history that helped define her. Since 1918 she spent nearly every summer at Woodburn, her mountain home. Born on July 26, 1918, in Brooklyn, New York, Abby attended Erasmus Hall; Highland Hall (graduated 1936), Vassar College (B.A. 1940), and Columbia University (M.A. 1942). Tom and Abby were married in 1941. From the outbreak of World War II, when Tom served as a pilot in the U.S. Army Air Corps, until his retirement in 1971, she lived an Air Force life. During this time she raised 7 children, was teacher and professor of English at the School for the Blind in Bangkok, Thailand; Albany High School and Albany Junior College in Georgia; and McKendree College in Illinois. She was a member of Delta Kappa Gamma. In 1971, Abby and Tom moved to Tallahassee, where she remained until 2007. She volunteered her time with a broad array of community services, including the Area Agency on Aging; the American Association of University Women, for which she served as Vice President; and the LeMoyne Art Gallery, for which she served as a Board member. Potter took an active role with AAUW in lobbying for the Equal Rights Amendment, and was an AAUW delegate to the Beijing Conference on Women. She was co-founder of the Tallahassee Cold Night Shelter, now known as the Leon County Shelter, Inc. For her many community contributions, she was awarded the AAUW Valiant Woman Award and the Tallahassee Social Services Volunteer of the Year Award in 1990. In Pennsylvania, she regularly attended meetings of the Daughters of the American Revolution, the Red Hat Society, the Garden Club, the Allen F. Pierce Library Book Discussion, the Rotary Club, the Thursday Study Club, and the annual Blossburg Library Garden Party, where she performed poetry readings. Abby also attended the biannual PowerPunch luncheons for women in Cliffside Park, N.J. A member of the First Presbyterian of Tallahassee and the Olde Covert Church on Armenia Mountain, she generously supported the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the American Civil Liberties Union, Common Cause, and the Initiative for Global Development. Abby is survived by her six children and spouses: Abby and Jim Werlock of Mainesburg, Pennsylvania; Jennifer and John Winton, Dewey Potter, and Amy and John Gibson, all of Seattle, Washington; Tim and Kathy Potter of Rockledge, Florida; and Meg and Matt Potter of Englewood, Florida. Other survivors include her sister Hazel Wellman's children, Ward, of Charlotte, N.C., and Tony, of Fairfield, CT., whom she helped raise and whom she considered her son; and her brother Frank Howell's children, Laurie Hime, of Miami, FL; Abbie Clifford, of Durango, CO.; and Priscilla Windham and Lisa McGreevy, both of Ocala, FL. Potter had six grandchildren: Adam Silver of Los Angeles, CA.; Ben Silver, of Kauai, Hawaii; Eve Wright of Seattle, WA, and Colin, Molly, and Tommy Gibson, of Seattle, WA. A service will be held on Sunday, March 30th, at the Olde Covert Church on Armenia Mountain. On June 21st, 2008, a celebration of her life will be held at Woodburn. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that contributions be made to the Thomas Kennedy and Abby Holmes Potter fund at the Olde Covert Church, Fallbrook Road, Covert, PA 16947. Arrangements are entrusted to the Gerald W. Vickery, Jr. Funeral Home Inc., 110 West Main Street, Troy, PA.