Hartford
“She was a widow at a young age, responsible for two children,” said Norwich attorney Jack Candon. “She looked in the mirror, not out the window.”
At the time of her husband John Abbott’s death in 1967, she was working at Dartmouth’s Baker Library, where she was involved in organizing and cataloging photographs and slides of the college’s art and architecture collections.
Abbott, whose husband was in the insurance business, loved the job, but a salary of $65 a week wasn’t going to cut it. Not for a 40-year-old single mom raising two teenagers.
“She had to figure out quickly how to make it work,” said her daughter, Jane Abbott Sweatt, a Lebanon elementary school teacher.
Abbott, who had grown up in the Burlington area, set about becoming a real estate agent. Victor Young, a Hartford real estate broker, gave Abbott her start, after a chance meeting at the Woodstock courthouse while both were on jury duty. After six years with Young Real Estate, Abbott hung out a shingle of her own in Norwich.
In that respect, Abbott, who died Sept. 23, 2017, at 88 of congestive heart failure, was something of a pioneer. In the 1970s, the Upper Valley business world was still very much a man’s world. Not many women ran their own businesses.
“She was a strong, assertive person when strong, assertive women were the exception,” said Candon, who worked with her on real estate deals for four decades.
Abbott learned early on that not all male business leaders were interested in seeing her succeed. As a real estate broker, she had sent a fair amount of mortgage business to a certain Hanover bank’s way. But when she went to the same bank to see about a loan to buy a house for herself?
“She was given all the stereotype reasons why a woman couldn’t get a mortgage on her own,” said her daughter. “She was a single woman with two kids.
“She was so mad about it, but it was one of the many things that she got past.”
Abbott became a mentor to other women looking to break into the business, Candon said. Abbott gave Berna Rexford her first job in real estate in 1984.
Abbott’s advice: Don’t sit at your desk and wait for the phone to ring. Get out and meet people. Know your community.
“She could talk with anyone,” said Rexford, who is now with Four Seasons Sotheby’s International Realty in Hanover. “She could sell property to anyone from the president of Dartmouth College to a guy who wanted a mobile home.”
Sue and Leigh Sinnamon, who now live in Deerfield, N.H., wrote in the Knight Funeral Homes’ online guest book about Abbott selling them their first home in 1970. “We moved to White River Junction from another state and she was a good ambassador for Vermont, offering information to help us get settled. We never forgot her, watching as she grew into her own and built her own business with continued success.”
Abbott built her business by going the extra mile — literally. She drove the back roads of Thetford, Strafford and Pomfret, stopping at every farmhouse she came across. She carried a box of dog biscuits to win over whomever might be on guard duty in the yard.
After knocking on a farmer’s door, she’d ask, “You got any land that you’d like to sell?”
If a farmer was open to selling a piece here or there, Abbott soon found herself climbing over stonewalls and traipsing across wood lots to get a closer look at the property.
Along the way, she met Daniel Smith, a Norwich building contractor. who became her second husband.
“The two formed a fruitful business partnership that led to many houses constructed on land that Trudy had listed,” stated her obituary, much of which Abbott wrote herself. “Trudy and Dan married and enjoyed traveling as much as much as quiet evenings at home doing puzzles and watching classic films.”
Harry Holland, her landlord in Norwich, bought several properties through Abbott over the years. She possessed a natural ability to look at a plot of land or a house in need of repairs, and instantly see its potential, Holland said.
“She knew just the right color of paint a house needed, or whether it would look better with or without window shutters,” Holland said. “She could even tell you what type of shrubbery to plant.”
Abbott’s talent for bringing out the best in a property came in handy when she served on the board of trustees at the Hartford Village Library. In the late 1990s, the library didn’t have much in the way of a children’s section. Books for young readers were scattered throughout the building.
About the only part of the building not in use was the basement. Where others saw a dark space with cobwebs, rocks and dirt, Abbott envisioned a children’s room. She helped lead the fundraising drive, which resulted in the opening of a children’s room, with dinosaur murals and bean bag chairs, in 2003.
Carrying on a tradition started by her first husband, Abbott regularly sent donations to Kurn Hattin Homes for Children in Westminster, Vt.
She was “extremely generous,” particularly to her children and grandchildren, said her son, John. “Even to the point of affecting her own financial situation in retirement.
“She would make contributions to an organization after seeing a story on television or in a newspaper article.”
A few years ago, Abbott saw a story in the Valley News about a single woman in Lebanon who was down on her luck. Abbott sent her a small check, along with a note of encouragement.
The woman sent back a thank-you note. Abbott was so touched that she continued to send the woman a few dollars each month.
“They sort of became pen pals,” said Abbott’s daughter, Jane, “but they never met.
“It was just a random thing my mother did. She did a lot of things like that to help people who needed it. Probably more than we’ll ever know.”
Jim Kenyon can be reached at jkenyon@vnews.com.
