Lee Hatch Butterfield
January 19, 1924 - January 26, 2012
Virginia Lee (Hatch) Butterfield, age 88, died peacefully at home on January 26, 2012 after a fall and brief hospitalization. She was the daughter of the late Lt. Parker C. Hatch and the late Virginia (Jones) Hatch of Hingham, Massachusetts. The eldest of three daughters, Lee attended Hingham elementary schools. After graduating from the Wheeler School in Providence, Rhode Island, she moved to NYC where she worked for Time Magazine and Trans World Airlines (TWA). She also worked at the Architectural Forum as a researcher and in the Naval Shipyard in Hingham managing the blueprint department. She attended Vassar College, until her father died at sea in 1944 while serving in the Navy, and the Katherine Gibbs Secretarial School.
Lee married Charles Perry Butterfield of Plymouth at the Church of the Advent of Boston in December 1945. They were married for 66 years. Lee and Charlie continued a shared and life-long passion for sailing when they purchased a small sloop while honeymooning in Maine and returned with their English Setter to sail it to Plymouth the following summer. They have been sailing the Gulf of Maine, Buzzards Bay and Cape Cod Bay ever since. One of her most cherished sails was helping sail the schooner "Alcor" back from the Bermuda Race in 1960.
Other than fifteen years (1983 1998) in Belfast and Center Harbor, Maine, and three years in North Carolina, Lee and Charlie made their home in Plymouth. She raised five children in Chiltonville and was a member of Plymouth Yacht Club, Eel River Beach Club, the Garden Club and Chiltonville Congregational Church. Lee was a natural designer, creating lovely homes wherever she lived. She enjoyed her children and grandchildren immensely and encouraged them all to develop a love and wonder for the natural world. A lover of music, Lee sang in choirs, played the accordian and piano and regularly attended performances of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, traveling from Plymouth with friends on the Friday "Symphony Bus." She was a lively conversationalist, an avid follower of politics and a creative and intuitive cook.
She is survived by her husband, Charles; two daughters, Sarah Crosby and husband William Evans of Maine, and Jane and husband Titus Presler of Vermont; and three sons, Charles "Sandy" and wife Anne of Colorado; Samuel and wife Linda, and Joe and wife Paula, both of Plymouth. She is also survived by ten grandchildren: Maya, Emma, Charlotte, Jessie, Henry, Amos, Jordan, Lindsey, Toby and Nathaniel; and five great grandchildren: Sam, Elena, Audrey, Gillian and Thomas; and her two sisters, Ellen Michaud of Bedford, Mass., and Sandy Culbert of Vermont.
A memorial service will be held at the Chiltonville Congregational Church, 6 River Street in Plymouth, at 11 a.m. on Saturday February 4, 2012. A reception at the Plymouth Yacht Club will follow the service.
In lieu of flowers, the family invites donations to the Dana Farber Cancer Institute (www.dana-farber.org), Cranberry Hospice (30 Cordage Park Circle, Suite 326, Plymouth, MA 02360), or Chiltonville Congregational Church (6 River St., Plymouth MA 02360).
Funeral Home:
Cartmell Funeral Home
150 Court St.
Plymouth, MA
US 02360
Lee married Charles Perry Butterfield of Plymouth at the Church of the Advent of Boston in December 1945. They were married for 66 years. Lee and Charlie continued a shared and life-long passion for sailing when they purchased a small sloop while honeymooning in Maine and returned with their English Setter to sail it to Plymouth the following summer. They have been sailing the Gulf of Maine, Buzzards Bay and Cape Cod Bay ever since. One of her most cherished sails was helping sail the schooner "Alcor" back from the Bermuda Race in 1960.
Other than fifteen years (1983 1998) in Belfast and Center Harbor, Maine, and three years in North Carolina, Lee and Charlie made their home in Plymouth. She raised five children in Chiltonville and was a member of Plymouth Yacht Club, Eel River Beach Club, the Garden Club and Chiltonville Congregational Church. Lee was a natural designer, creating lovely homes wherever she lived. She enjoyed her children and grandchildren immensely and encouraged them all to develop a love and wonder for the natural world. A lover of music, Lee sang in choirs, played the accordian and piano and regularly attended performances of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, traveling from Plymouth with friends on the Friday "Symphony Bus." She was a lively conversationalist, an avid follower of politics and a creative and intuitive cook.
She is survived by her husband, Charles; two daughters, Sarah Crosby and husband William Evans of Maine, and Jane and husband Titus Presler of Vermont; and three sons, Charles "Sandy" and wife Anne of Colorado; Samuel and wife Linda, and Joe and wife Paula, both of Plymouth. She is also survived by ten grandchildren: Maya, Emma, Charlotte, Jessie, Henry, Amos, Jordan, Lindsey, Toby and Nathaniel; and five great grandchildren: Sam, Elena, Audrey, Gillian and Thomas; and her two sisters, Ellen Michaud of Bedford, Mass., and Sandy Culbert of Vermont.
A memorial service will be held at the Chiltonville Congregational Church, 6 River Street in Plymouth, at 11 a.m. on Saturday February 4, 2012. A reception at the Plymouth Yacht Club will follow the service.
In lieu of flowers, the family invites donations to the Dana Farber Cancer Institute (www.dana-farber.org), Cranberry Hospice (30 Cordage Park Circle, Suite 326, Plymouth, MA 02360), or Chiltonville Congregational Church (6 River St., Plymouth MA 02360).
Funeral Home:
Cartmell Funeral Home
150 Court St.
Plymouth, MA
US 02360
