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- The Standard Times (New Bedford, MA)
December 19, 2023
Elsie (Simmons) Haskell lived a life filled with family and friends. She died at the age of 99, on Sunday, December 17, surrounded by beloved family.
Elsie was married to her high school sweetheart, Louie, for 75 years. She saw Louie in her high school math class and told her friend she was going to marry him. They established a homestead, a house on the hill, for four generations of children, grandchildren and great grandchildren.
Elsie was born in Dartmouth to Eugene and Mary (Motha) Simmons, the youngest of four children.She grew up on Bakerville Road with grandparents and cousins nearby, but spent some time living at Round Hill during the Great Depression when her father was employed by Colonel Green. Elsie graduated from Dartmouth High School where she was a cheerleader and excelled in English. Her dreams of attending college were willingly and gladly put aside to care for her ailing mother. Despite stopping her formal education, she continued to learn voraciously throughout her life.
In 1959, she combined her love of family and friends with a love of books and ideas and began volunteering at the library. By 1960, she was a library assistant at the old one-room North Dartmouth Library on Route 6. Because of the building's historical significance to the town, she campaigned to preserve that library that once had its stacks located in the 5-foot-high basement. Working at all three library branches, she held most of the positions in the library serving as a children's librarian, bookkeeper, Assistant Director, and Acting Director of the system six times over her 34-year career and served as the Assistant Director of the Library system for the last 10 years of her career. She was at the helm during the building of the current Southworth Library on Dartmouth Street. She retired at age 70, still feeling the library was not her job, but her joy.
A town activist, Elsie served on the town Group Insurance Committee, worked to enact two-acre zoning and was a town meeting member for decades, most recently in 2023. She was passionate about the Town of Dartmouth and had many causes she worked tirelessly in support of, including preservation of the salt marsh, and protection of historic buildings. Family dinners around Elsie's table often included discussions about Town politics and debate about Town issues.
Elsie had many interests and loved creating with her hands. She did calligraphy, stenciling, braided rugs, and caned chairs. She was a collector of books, especially town and regional histories, pens, brooches, quotes, antiques, vintage post cards and people. Throughout her life, Elsie was blessed with a wide circle of close friends and family, stopping by her house, all were welcomed with a seat at the table, oft times with ukuleles, some with dahlias or box cameras. She loved new ideas, thought-provoking conversation, never walked away from a spirited debate, and laughed every day. She always had time to sit, talk and listen to your story with genuine interest. When you were with Elsie you couldn't help but feel important.
She is survived by a daughter, Mary Lou Frias and her husband, Ernest Frias; a son, Barry Haskell and his wife, Wendy; grandchildren Melissa Haskell and Jeff Graber, Elizabeth Haskell, Katherine Frias and Thaddeus Herliczek, Sarah Arruda, Timothy Frias and Amy Cannon Frias; great-grandchildren, Ryan and Gabrielle Arruda, Grace Haskell, Anna and Madeleine Herliczek, Cecilia and Sterling Frias and many nieces, nephews and friends.
She was the sister of the late Hilda Dutra, Eugene Simmons and Frank Simmons.
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1924 - 2023 (99 years)
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