Woodstock, Vermont

Ann Taylor Debevoise, 98, of Woodstock, Vermont, passed away at Mt. Ascutney Hospital on Monday, February 19, 2024.

She was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on June 25,1925, daughter of Nell (Bowen) and Rogers Clinton Taylor and grew up on the family's dairy farm in Woodstock, Connecticut. She attended The Arke School, a small independent elementary and middle school her mother ran at their house. Following that she attended Abbot Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, graduating in 1942.

She then attended Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania, graduating in 1947 (having taken one year off to help at home during WWII) with a degree in economics.

After her graduation she was an assistant to Clair Wilcox, an economics professor at Swarthmore who was also an advisor to the US government during discussions with Britain concerning details of the Marshall Plan. She was crossing the Atlantic in connection with that when she met her future husband, Tom Debevoise. They were married at the Arke Farm in Connecticut on Thanksgiving Day, 1951. They lived in, and then near, New York City while he finished law school and began his law career. Their first two children, sons Whitney and Clay, were born during that time. They moved to an old farm in the Cox District of Woodstock, Vermont, in 1956. While her husband practiced law,

Ann looked after the family and started restoring the farm. She was also active with the nursery school on the lower floor of the woolhouse by the Rec Center and with St. James Church. She had their third child, Tom, in 1957 and their fourth, Anne, in 1961, both at Mary Hitchcock hospital in Hanover.

Her husband accepted a position with the Federal Power Commission in Washington D.C. early in 1962; the rest of the family moved down before school started that fall. They kept their place in Woodstock, however, returning during holidays and school vacations. and finally for good in 1974 when he took on the deanship at the nascent Vermont Law School. While in Washington Ann maintained her commitment to service, volunteering at her children's schools and the Corcoran Gallery of Art.

Once back in Vermont, and with only one child at home, Ann could concentrate on the farm and the community. She ran Polled Hereford cattle and Polled Dorset sheep, and worked on improving pastureland and reseeding hayfields. She served as a director of the Vermont Beef Producers Association and as a supervisor of the Ottauquechee Natural Resources Conservation District.

Over the years she also served as a trustee of the Norman Williams Public Library, the Vermont Achievement Center, and the Woodstock Historical Society; she was a board member of the Vermont Center for the Book and member of the Vermont Arts Council. Not least of all, she was the full partner her husband needed during the stressful early years of the Vermont Law School and served on its board of trustees after he died. The Law School awarded her an honorary degree in 2005 and she continued to serve as an actively participating trustee emerita until her death. Despite being in the hospital and knowing she would be unable to attend, she requested and reviewed the materials for the February 2024 board meeting.

Ann was devoted to her husband whom she loved and respected just as he loved and respected her. She cared deeply for her family, her friends, her neighbors and her community and woke up every morning with a list of things that needed doing or should be set right. Her attitude while in the hospital after her stroke in January was "I feel lucky I have been able to do so much for so long."

Ann was predeceased by her parents, her husband, her sister Joan Sodestrom, her son Clay, and her great-granddaughter Sabine. She is survived by her son Whitney and his wife Heidi, her son Tom and his wife Laurie Livingston, her daughter Anne and her husband Andrew Ostby, her son Clay's widow Linda Derick, nine grandchildren, seven great-grandchildren, three nephews and a niece.

The family is deeply grateful to the many providers and staff at Mt. Ascutney Hospital whose skilled and compassionate care helped Ann navigate the many challenges she faced in the last weeks of her life.

There are no services planned at this time.

An on-line guestbook can be found at cabotfh.com