Date: Fri 30-May-1997

Publication: Bee

Author: DOTTIE

Quick Words:

schools-Hawley-grave

Full Text:

An Annual Visit To

Mary Hawley's Gravesite

Mary Hawley remembered: Hawley School Principal Linda Siciliano and three

fifth graders, Katie Hydock (left), Alexa Vacaro and James Terhaar, placed

flowers at her grave on Tuesday, May 27.

-Bee Photos, Evans

One of many gifts: The Hawley Memorial entrance gates, built in 1924, make an

impressive addition to Newtown's ancient Village Cemetery, dating back to

1711.

B Y D OROTHY E VANS

In what is an annual spring ritual, three fifth grade students from the Hawley

School visited the Village Cemetery gravesite of Mary Hawley to place flowers

and pay their respects.

This year, the brief ceremony took place Tuesday, May 27, at noon.

"We try to go over every year around Memorial Day, either the Friday before or

the Tuesday after, depending upon the weather," said Hawley School Principal

Linda Siciliano.

She and the Hawley students, James Terhaar, Alexa Vacaro and Katie Hydock,

trudged up the cemetery driveway toward the Hawley family plot, pausing now

and then to read the names on the headstones and enjoy the peaceful view.

It was a perfect May spring day - cool and sunny, with thick, puffy clouds

floating across a blue sky and casting occasional shadows across the stones.

Many graves had been decorated with flowers over the previous Memorial Day

weekend, and clumps of buttercups sprouted here and there on the hillside.

When the students and Mrs Siciliano reached the massive, pink granite Hawley

family monument, Mrs Siciliano left their gift of a potted geranium at its

base.

"Where would we have been without her?" she said simply.

Mary Elizabeth Hawley was a remarkable though reclusive Newtown woman, who

lived from 1857 to 1930 and made many generous donations to the town during

her lifetime. She financed the Cyrenius H. Booth Library, Edmond Town Hall,

the Village Cemetery Memorial Gateway, the Soldiers and Sailors' War Memorial

and, of course, the Hawley School.

Constructed during the winter of 1921, the school was the first of her gifts

to the town.

Today, the Hawley school community is still reaping the benefit of Miss

Hawley's generosity.