Hanover, N.H. —
Mary was born at the Mary Hitchcock Hospital in Hanover on Sept. 12, 1930, and spent her childhood living in Windemere, Fla., while summering in Fairlee on Lake Morey. She inherited a love of horses from her grandfather, who once owned a livery stable with 100 horses. In a one-room schoolhouse that covered eight grades, Mary was the only one in her class for grades 1, 2, and 3. She learned a lot from her older classmates and never stopped reading except to go riding. Around ten she bought a wornout work horse for a handful of silver spoons she had snuck out of her parent’s house.
Mary proved to be a challenge to her parents, who sent her to her aunt’s house in Bradford, Vt., for one year of high school, where she met her future husband. After graduating from high school, Mary ran away with a girlfriend and was finally located in Wyoming by an alert member of the State Police.
While a nursing student at Mary Hitchcock, Mary married Putnam Blodgett on June 28, 1952. She graduated from nursing school in January of 1953, gave birth in March and watched her husband graduate from Dartmouth in June. They took over his parent’s farm and worked together on the farm for fifteen years. During these years Mary had three more children and milked cows twice a day, six days a week. Together they built and developed summer camps offering boys wilderness trips and a riding camp for girls.
After a divorce in 1968, Mary moved to Hanover and established the riding program for Dartmouth teaching college students “there are no bad horses, only bad riders.” The Dartmouth Equestrian Program is still vital fifty years later.
In 1973 Mary moved to the Vershire School where she taught mathematics, biology and riding to teens with drug and alcohol issues. She earned her B.A. and a Master’s in Education during her twelve years at Vershire. She also nursed her grandmother so she would pass peacefully at home in her 92nd year.
Mary returned to Hanover in 1988 to work as a Lab Assistant at the Dartmouth Medical School until her retirement in 1999. She took care of her mother who would pass peacefully at home in her 96th year.
In 2002, Marilyn moved into Hanover Senior Housing where she enjoyed joining an active community of seniors pursuing the arts, games of bridge, crafts, and working on community dinners at local churches.
Marilyn is survived by four children: Patience Grant of Missoula, Mont., Putnam “Boo” Blodgett of Bradford; Susan Whitcomb of Hanover, and Peter Blodgett of Thetford, Vt.; nine grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.
Mary was always a teacher urging each of her students to seek their own answers and to do good work. Her kindness and encouragement made a lasting difference for hundreds through her lifetime. Her final act was to donate her body to the Dartmouth Medical School.
Mary is the third generation of her family to choose Hanover as the center of her life, where she was born, studied, raised children, nursed, taught and and volunteered. She will join her grandparents, parents, and siblings at Pine Knolls cemetery.
In keeping with Mary’s wishes, there are no public services being planned. A private family gathering will be observed at a later date.
Donations in her memory may be made to the Hanover Senior Center, 48 Lebanon Street, Hanover, NH 03755.
Her final sentiments echo the words of her grandmother written almost sixty years ago; “Another of the blessings we are so truly grateful for is that our whole family can be together so the grands and the great-grands are known to us. We are glad to see our lives going on in them. We live each day in gratitude, its beauty to be cherished, its love to be shared.”