Chelsea, Vt. —
She was born August 26, 1923, in Springfield, Mass., the daughter of Carl Oscar Carlson and Dorothy Marguerite Davis. She was educated at Classical High School in Springfield and graduated from West Springfield High School in 1940. She received an AA degree from Vermont Jr. College and her B.A. degree from American International College in 1945, after which she did graduate work at Springfield College and the University of Vermont.
Best known locally as a longtime teacher at Chelsea High School, she was a journalist by profession. From a reporter for the Springfield, Mass., Union starting in1940 she moved on to Lexington, Ky., to become associate editor of the American Horseman. In 1947 she became managing editor of Popular Horsemen in Harrisburg, Pa., until her marriage in February, 1952, to Harold Lofton Childs. They moved to Ringtown, Pa. where he was manager-trainer of Valley Farm show horses. They moved to their Harolyn Hill Farm in Chelsea in 1961. Meanwhile she continued to write for various publications including the Lexington, Ky. Herald-Leader, the Christian Science Monitor and Vermont Life.
She was the author of five books: Riding Show Horses, Mandate for a Morgan Horse, Training Your Colt to Ride and Drive, The Men Behind the Morgan Horse and The Training Book which is used as a text at several equine schools and colleges. She has been listed in Who’s Who of American Women and most recently Who’s Who in the World.
Her career in teaching started in 1964 at Chelsea High School where at various times she taught English, French, Journalism, Composition and Speech as well as serving as assistant principal and guidance counselor. Under her coaching the school received the state championship in forensics 10 times, won many debate honors and she herself was named Vermont Debate Coach of the Year twice.
She was well-known in the horse world, having been a licensed judge and steward of the American Horse Shows Assoc.; first secretary and one time president of the New England Horsemen’s Council; director and later director emeritus of the American Morgan Horse Assoc.; member of the Heritage Committee of the American Saddlebred Assoc.; honorary member of several Morgan Horse Associations. She judged horse shows from coast to coast and in Canada and England.
She began showing horses at age nine and continued every year until retiring in 1992 at the Dixie Jubilee in Baton Rouge, La., after 60 years in the saddle. She showed Standardbred, Hackney, Thoroughbreds, Morgan and American Saddlebreds. Her last five-gated horse was shown by Rick Wallen from his stable in Wisconsin.
She was a member of the First Church of Christ Scientist in Boston, Mass., as well as the Christian Science Society of Randolph. She was a member of Delta Kappa Gamma International and the Chelsea Woman’s Club. Since 1999 she was a volunteer on the Chelsea Reparative Board, and prior to that had been a justice of the peace. She had been chairman of the Chelsea Town Republican Committee and had served on both county and state organizations.
Among her many awards were: 1975 Morgan Horse Woman of the Year presented by Deane C. Davis, 1989 Outstanding Speech Educator from the National Federation of State High School Assoc., in 2000 the National Citizen Education Teacher Award from the Veterans of Foreign Wars for Vermont and profiled as a WCAX-TV super senior in 2014.
Besides her parents she was predeceased by her younger brother, Charles Carlson; a younger sister, Joyce Carlson Williams; and her husband of 53 years, Harold in 2005. She leaves three sons, David of Orange, Vt., Robert of Chelsea and Carl of Williston, Vt.; six grandsons, Wayland, Eli, Albert, Andrew, Peter and Ethan; and two granddaughters, Mary and Grace; and a great-grandson.
Calling hours will be held, Thursday, April 27, 2017, at 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., at the Boardway & Cilley Funeral Home, 300 VT RT 110, Chelsea. A funeral service will be held, Friday, April 28, 2017, at 10 a.m. at the funeral home. Private burial will be in the Hunt Cemetery in Tunbridge.
In lieu of flowers memorial contributions may be made to Principia College, 1 Maybeck Place, Elsah, IL 62028 or the Hunt Cemetery, P.O. Box 378, Chelsea, VT 05038 or the First Branch Ambulance, P.O. Box, Chelsea, VT 05038.
A private message of sympathy for the family can be shared at www.boardwayandcilley.com.