On May 31, 1927 a baby girl, Kathryn Elizabeth Hall, was born in Brattleboro, Vermont, to Hubert Royal Hall and Mary McGrath Hall. On April 2, 2018, she opened her eyes for the last time, peacefully looking beyond to something beautiful.
After her mother passed away when Kay was just two, she was raised by her father and stepmother, Ruby Myrick (Huestis) Hall. She graduated from Brattleboro Union High School and worked at the Holstein-Friesian Association.
Her adult life was threefold, the first beginning in 1947 when she and Leslie A. Neal were married, then moving to Walpole, NH in 1951. They were married for 34 years. Each home where they lived on the Walpole Common was a welcoming place where the neighborhood children and beyond would congregate to play, receive TLC, and enjoy her baked goods and home-cooked meals. The family’s life was filled with attending sporting events, days at their cottage on Granite Lake, and hosting the family holiday gatherings. She supported her husband’s businesses of L.A. Neal Associates and Brown and Roberts Hardware, working part-time at both. She was a life member of the First Congregational Church of Walpole and the Bingham Chapter #30, Order of Eastern Star in Brattleboro.
Kay later lived in Chester, Vermont with her second husband, Leonard Jerome. She enjoyed several cross-country road trips, spent countless hours creating beautiful crewel and slate projects for family and friends, and traveled often to Walpole and Brattleboro to visit those she loved, and to the ocean, especially Nubble Light.
Throughout her life, Kay, in her own right, fulfilled her young wish of becoming a nurse by loving everyone, caring for young and old, extending kindnesses to friends and strangers, and always doing what was right in her mind. Her caregiving of others continued in the last years of her life when she chose to live at Maplewood Assisted Living in Westmoreland, New Hampshire when her eyes began to fail. She embraced her new friends and the staff as her extended family. Her days there can be depicted by white pearls on Sunday for church, watching the Boston Red Sox, tackling sudoku and word jumbles, sending large print emails to family, attending music events and other activities, knitting blankets for others, and enjoying the birds and flowers on her walks to the screen house to look down at the Connecticut River.
Kay was predeceased by her parents and infant brother, William Ernest Hall; her sister, Virginia Hall Willard; a stepsister, Cecile Briggs; and stepbrother William T. Huestis Jr., and her beloved son John Leslie Neal.
She is survived by her daughter, Mary Kathryn Beer and husband Josiah; her son, James Hall Neal and his wife Patti; her daughter-in-law, Christine Neal Gowen and her husband Tim, her husband Leonard Jerome and his son Geoff and family, as well as nine grandchildren: Joshua Beer and his wife Ajlan, Jesse Beer, Zachery Beer; Scott Harris and his wife Annlouise, Patrick Neal, Laura Neal Palmer and her husband Doug; Tiffany Snelling and her husband Jesse, Cassidy Neal and his wife Anna, Melissa Neal and her partner Mike Beam. Twelve great-grandchildren brought her joy: William and Ellery; Clayton, Austin, Bronwen and Gillian; Nolan; Syon, Amalia, Magnolia, and Ophelia; and Levi.
Kay’s family is forever grateful to the wonderful staff at Maplewood Assisted Living who were another family to her, and to the staff at the nursing home who so compassionately helped us make her last week of life be as comfortable as possible.
Her wish is for a family graveside service which will be when the grass is green and the flowers are in bloom. She would be so pleased for any donations given to the Assisted Living Activity Dept. of Maplewood Assisted Living, 201 River Road, Westmoreland, NH 03467.
As your daily newspaper, we are committed to providing you with important local news coverage for Sullivan County and the surrounding areas.