Springfield, NH – Harriet (“Happy”) Callaway
It was tradition in her family that the first-born daughter be named after her maternal grandmother. Thus her born name is Harriet but nobody called her that. Shortly after she came home as a newborn her father called her “Happy” and that nickname stuck. She passed away surrounded by family at Wheelock Terrace in Hanover on September 26.
She was born in Boston on August 6, 1940 to John D. and Henrietta R. Stewart. She was brought up in Buffalo, New York, graduated from Buffalo Seminary in 1958 and Smith College in 1962. After graduation she moved to 95 West Cedar Street in Boston where she met Leigh Callaway, a college student two years her junior, in December 1962. That Christmas together spawned a bond of love lasting sixty-four years.
They married in Buffalo in 1964 after Leigh graduated and began marriage in New York where she studied at Columbia Presbyterian Nursing School. Leigh worked as a teacher. She graduated in 1965 and began her career as a visiting nurse with the Westchester County Department of Health. Then things went sideways in 1966 when Leigh got an invitation from the Selective Service System for a pre-induction physical exam. He enlisted in the Navy and they left in July for Pensacola where Leigh reported for flight training. She exemplified the real Navy – the spouses and families at home. For twenty years she was as much a part of the Navy as Leigh.
Together they lived in Pensacola, Corpus Christi, San Diego, Oak Harbor WA, Cupertino CA, Iwakuni Japan, Vienna VA, Wassenaar Netherlands, Jacksonville FL, Brunswick ME and Springfield VA. They finally found home in Springfield, NH in 2007. Along the way she worked as a nurse in various places (e.g., public schools in Freeport, ME). She retired after 20 years with the Fairfax County Public Health Department where she was a Nurse Epidemiologist during the anthrax mail scares and the onset of HIV/AIDS.
She is survived by her husband, a son Derek and his wife Sarah Glass in Hanover, a son Duncan and his wife Meredith Fowlie in Piedmont CA, her sister Ione Crandall in Gig Harbor WA, grandson Caleb in Anchorage, granddaughter Ada at University of Washington, granddaughter Amelia in Piedmont CA and grandson Benjamin also in Piedmont. Testimony to her character, she brought up two boys who are successful professionals with loving families of their own.
Happy never really retired. She took five Outward Bound trips (e.g. dogsledding in Minnesota), climbed the steps to the top of Machu Pichu, took boat trips to the Galapagos Islands and through the northwest passage, went on safari in Africa, toured the Amazon jungle and took canoe trips in the Boundary Waters and British Columbia. She served on the Springfield Checklist Supervisors and the Libbie Cass Library Board of Trustees. She volunteered at the Lake Sunapee VNA’s Good Day Respite program and at High Horses in Sharon VT. She served on the Board of Directors of the Lake Sunapee Rowing Club where she started and managed the adaptive rowing program. She was a member of the Kearsarge Community Presbyterian Church.
Special thanks to Wheelock Terrace and Dartmouth Health HomeCare who helped through her last hours in dignity, comfort and peace.
A celebration of life will be held on Saturday, October 24th at 10:00 at the Springfield Meeting House, 23 Four Corners Road, Springfield, NH. Donations are welcome to the Springfield playground restoration. Checks payable to the “Springfield Playground Expendable Trust” can be mailed to PO Box 22, Springfield, NH 03284.
She was an abundant free spirit, a woman of faith, love, courage, self-knowledge, compassion and uncompromising values. She had red hair, a dazzling smile and climbed Mount Kilimanjaro.
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