BENNINGTON Hope Jerome Graves, 92 a well- known resident of Monument Avenue, died peacefully Sunday, July 7, 2013, at her residence.
Arrangements are pending at the Mahar and Son Funeral Home in Bennington. A complete obituary will appear in Tuesday's paper.
Published in Bennington Banner on July 8, 2013
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1920 - 2013 OLD BENNINGTON Hope Colgate Jerome Graves, 92, died peacefully on July 7, 2013 at her home in Old Bennington.
She was born in Yonkers, NY, the daughter of the late William Travers Jerome Jr. and Hope Colgate Jerome. She and her family spent summers in Bennington until 1938 when the family left Yonkers to live full time in Vermont.
She graduated from Miss Porter's School in Farmington, CT in 1939 and continued her education by attending the Child Education Foundation in New York City. She graduated from New York University with her bachelor of science degree in education in 1943. She worked in the Montessori School in NYC before returning to Bennington to wait for her fiance, First Lieutenant Louis G. Graves, to return home from WWII. During that time, she worked at Putnam Memorial Hospital as a telephone switchboard operator.
She married Mr. Graves on November 24,1945. They made Bennington their home until he predeceased her in 1998, after fifty-two years of marriage. Together they raised five children.
Hope was always interested in early childhood education and children in general. She was a homemaker who was involved in her children's activities, serving for a time as president of the school's PTA. She started a kindergarten in the Old Academy Library in Old Bennington when she found no such program available for her youngest daughter.
Survivors include her three daughters: Lodie Ann Colvin (and her husband, James), Linda G. Shanafelt, and Judith G. Knight (and her husband, Bill), two daughters -in-law: Betsy Graves and Gail Graves, nine grandchildren, thirteen great-grandchildren, her sisters, Evelyn Jerome Lindsay of Bennington and Ann Jerome Miles of Springfield, MO, as well as many nieces and nephews.
Hope was predeceased by her husband, Louis G. Graves, her sons, L. Gardner Graves, Jr. and John C. Graves, her son-in-law, Thomas L. Shanafelt, and her two brothers, William T. Jerome III and James C. Jerome.
FUNERAL NOTICE: At the request of the family, the funeral and committal services will be private. The family will receive friends at the family residence at 25 Monument Avenue in Old Bennington on Thursday, July 11th, from 1:00 -3:00 P.M.
Published in Bennington Banner on July 9, 2013