Elaine F. Higley

She was born in Winchester, NH, August 11, 1921, the daughter of Augustus R. and Pauline (Heath) Goodell. She grew up in Winchester and was a 1939 graduate of Thayer High School. While in high school, she participated on the girl’s basketball team.

Elaine was an accomplished seamstress by trade and enjoyed sewing, crocheting and kitting. She made wedding dresses and gowns for the entire wedding parties. She especially enjoyed making dresses for her granddaughters as well as knitting dresses for their dolls. She was known as the woman who could fix anything with thread and a needle. She was also very proud of her porcelain doll collection.

She worked at the Hinsdale Racetrack for several years. She was also the night shift switchboard operator at the Cheshire Medical Center in Keene, for 21 years, retiring in 1986. She was well known for her voice and her kindness to everyone. Her home was always open to everyone who knew her and loved her. She was a very generous, loving woman. She loved reading westerns and watching John Wayne movies. In her earlier years she loved to dance. She was loved by all and will be sadly missed.

For a short time, Elaine moved to Colorado and helped care for her daughter after she was diagnosed with a terminal illness. She returned to the area where she longed to be in 2001. Over the last 11 years, she had been cared for by her good friends, Sue and Roger Bishop of Alstead, NH. They helped her to live independently until late in 2012.

Survivors include her three grandchildren, Ronda J. (Higley) Catron, Bruce R. Higley, Lorelei (Gerbasi) Balderston; and several great-grandchildren. She was predeceased by a son, Bruce R. Higley in 1968; her daughter, Thorine H. (Higley) Riggs in 2001; and a brother, Richard A. Goodell, in 2009.

A graveside service and burial in Evergreen Cemetery, Winchester, NH, will be held in the spring.

For those who wish, donations may be made in Mrs. Higley’s memory to the Fall Mountain Food Shelf, c/o Mary Lou Huffling, PO Box 191, Alstead, NH 03602.

The Foley Funeral Home of Keene, NH is assisting the family with the arrangements.