Martha Scott Perkins passed away peacefully at home, next to the woodstove, her two beloved cats tucked in next to her.
Martha was born at Mary Fletcher Hospital in Burlington, Vt., on August 28, 1936, to her mother, Mabel Larrabee Scott, and Vernon Lucius Scott. She grew up on Lyman Avenue in the South End of Burlington with her three brothers, Stanley, Wally and Roderick. She told stories of roaming and playing in the woods with her friends at Oak Ledge and Red Rocks parks on the lake near her home. Martha found adventure as a child in the wilderness of the South End of Burlington and then wherever she went throughout her life.
She graduated from Burlington High School in 1954, where she met and dated Dick Perkins, one year her elder. Martha loved sharing the story of walking up the hill to the University of Vermont after graduating from high school and asking them, “How do I go to college?” Her college path was paused when she and Dick married in 1957, but she later returned and graduated from UVM in 1972 with a bachelor of science. And a degree in life.
An avid athlete, Martha especially loved to ski, and it was a passion for Martha and Dick together. They’d scrape together money for cheap tickets at Stowe or find other ways to get on the hill. Martha skied for the UVM Women’s Ski Team, pre-Title IX, pinching pennies to pay for uniforms. Skiing well into her seventies, she especially loved Mad River Glen. Tennis, hiking, running, croquet — she aced them all. And let us not forget the baton twirling and tap dancing. When her knees hurt in the last few years, she’d chuckle, “That’s what I get for being an old athlete.”
After marrying, Martha and Dick lived at Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H., where Dick attended graduate school. They moved to the Boston area after that to begin their careers and build their life together. After stints in Somerville and Bedford, where their eldest child, Scott, was born, they moved to rural Stow, Mass., where they went on to have two daughters, Meg and Kit. With three children under 6, Martha was a heroic homemaker and homesteader, caring for kids, growing and canning food, living on a shoestring, and becoming a core part of the Stow community as a librarian and town volunteer.
Martha was part of a generation of women who entered adulthood straddling two different worlds: the expectations of the 1950s housewife and the women’s liberation movement of the 1960s and ’70s. With her boundless energy, intelligence and vision, Martha was a dynamo, enthusiastically living in both worlds; she worked hard to care for her family, her home and her community and tirelessly advocated for equal rights, social justice and environmental sustainability.
When the home nest emptied, Martha spearheaded some creative ventures in city design and planning, town/university relationships, and environmental activism, and she started her own company, Spirit Beam Community Planners and Writers. She earned a master’s of regional planning from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 1990.
Martha moved back to Vermont in 1993, converting part of the family camp in Charlotte for year-round use, and has loved living there ever since. Despite their separation in the early 1990s, Martha and Dick have stayed in close touch all these many years.
Connecting with a wonderful community of people here in Vermont, Martha built a strong, bonded group of friends and colleagues of all ages whom she cared for deeply and who we know cared for her. An artist and expert seamstress, Martha always loved finding beautiful fabrics and vintage clothing to make scarves and other textile designs.
Often referred to as “the Pie Lady,” Martha ran her own business — Mrs. Perkins’ Pies — in Stow, Mass., for many years. In Vermont, she turned her pie-making skills into a fundraiser for the Charlotte Congregational Church. It was an epic volunteer effort, making and selling 50 pies a day every fall for more than 10 years, even generating net income!
A spiritual person who always insisted on a blessing before each meal, at a beautifully set table, Martha practiced Christianity and Buddhism. She followed Buddhist teacher and writer Thich Nhat Hanh. His teachings and meditations carried Martha through some hard life challenges and helped her find peace in her active mind and heart. The Charlotte Congregational Church was her beloved Christian home.
Martha was a scholar and an avid reader. She loved books and filled her home with them. Her bookshelves tell the story of her interests: spirituality, relationships, leadership, power, nature, poetry and so much more. She devoured the New York Times, Washington Post and local forums and loved talking about it all with friends and family, likely with abundant chocolate, over a game of cooperative Scrabble.
Martha leaves her beloved kitties, Butter and Mary, and her children and their families, whom she adored: Jonathan Scott Perkins, wife Kathleen Perkins, and their daughters, Ruth and Mary; Meg Perkins Ames, husband Rick Ames, their daughters, Susannah and Katy, and two great-grandchildren, Arlo and Finn; and Kit Perkins, spouse Andrew Thurber, and their children, Kosi and Maria.
She also leaves her brother, Roderick Scott, many dear nephews and nieces, and friends far and wide, including right here at Cedar Beach in Charlotte. You know who you are.
In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation in Martha’s honor to Shelburne Farms, KidsGardening or Charlotte Congregational Church.
This article appears in Love & Marriage Issue • 2026.
Martha will always be a part of my Cedar Beach memories. She will also be remembered as Martha, while I remain Marty. God is smiling to have you in his heavenly household. I can only hope for a pie to be waiting in my future. Rest in peace.