Esther Farnsworth of Montpelier, Vt., died peacefully on August 1, 2025, at the Hummingbird Center in Berlin, Vt. Esther was born in Springfield, Mass., on December 8, 1928, one of four children born to Gladys and Donald Havens. The family later moved to Burlington, where she graduated from Burlington High School and the University of Vermont. Esther married her college sweetheart, Hobart Cook, and they lived in New York, Connecticut, Texas, Michigan, Ohio and New Jersey while raising four children.
In 1975 she married her lifelong friend Harlan Farnsworth. Esther and Harlan lived in Montpelier, where Harlan was a Montpelier High School math teacher. Esther worked in the Montpelier office of the Times Argus and as the church secretary at First Congregational Church in Burlington and Bethany Church in Montpelier.
They were active members of Bethany Church, where they sang in the choir for many years. She traveled twice to San Antonio Grande, El Salvador, where Bethany Church has established a sister community program to support education for youths.
Esther and Harlan hiked, canoed, biked, camped and skied with the Montpelier section of the Green Mountain Club. They went on extended canoe trips on Lake Champlain and in the Canadian wilderness. Esther and Harlan traveled by bicycle in Vermont, Holland, Denmark, the British Isles, Germany and Sweden. Her outdoor activities included snowshoeing, biking, kayaking and vacationing in Nova Scotia with her two daughters. She traveled to Haiti, Lebanon, Cuba, Bolivia, Israel and to many beautiful parts of Canada.
Esther was a member of the 251 Club of Vermont, and for two years she traveled to photograph and write about all of Vermont’s cities and towns. She was featured on the CBS program “Sunday Morning” in October 2022, singing the Vermont state song.
Esther and Harlan were among the founding members of Central Vermont Habitat for Humanity. They served on the board and helped to build several houses; Esther enjoyed learning to install shingles while standing on a scaffold.
For many years, the Farnsworths welcomed international refugees into their home, including families from El Salvador, Guatemala, Bosnia, Tunisia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda. The Montpelier Rotary Club gave the Farnsworths the Good Citizens Award in 1995.
Esther was a member of the Raging Grannies singing group, the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), and the Association of Retired Citizens sewing group. For 18 years WILPF sponsored Esther and her friend Linda Leehman as producers of the central Vermont public-access television program “Down by the Riverside, News and Views.” In that capacity, they traveled to Beijing for the United Nations Conference on Women and to Bolivia in 2007 to WILPF’s International Congress.
She traveled to the Soviet Union in 1983 and 1986 with the U.S.-U.S.S.R. Bridges for Peace program.
Esther spent many hours working with friends in the Montpelier Peace Park along the river on the Montpelier recreation path until the 2023 flood. Esther’s friends and family hope to bring back the beauty of the park in the coming months and years.
Esther was predeceased by her husband, Harlan; her brothers, Frederick, Everett and Clifton Havens; her sister-in-law Anne Devaughn; and her former husband, Hobart Cook. She leaves her son Bill Cook and his wife, Ann, of Spring Branch, Texas; daughter Sally Cook of Burlington; daughter Anne Adams of Yulee, Fla.; son Tom Cook and his wife, Robin, of Loranger, La.; stepdaughter, Norma Farnsworth, and Norma’s partner, John Roman; stepson, David Farnsworth, and his wife, Tracy; sister-in-law Flossie Havens; many grandchildren and great-grandchildren; many nieces, nephews and cousins; and many friends in Vermont and around the world. Esther lived at Westview Meadows in Montpelier for 16 years and cherished her Westview Meadows family, neighbors, friends, and all the wonderful and caring staff.
Esther’s family wishes to express their special thanks to Dr. Rachel Gaidys and the Palliative Care team at Central Vermont Medical Center, Elliot RN and Jamie MSW of Central Vermont Home Health & Hospice, Suzanne Richman of the Hummingbird Center in Berlin, and all staff and all of her friends at Westview Meadows. Many thanks to her friend Theresa Lever of Montpelier, as well as all of her other loving friends in the central Vermont area.
Esther asked that her friends and family remember her with joy, contentment and gratitude. To honor her memory, go for a walk outdoors, dig in a garden, listen to an opera, eat a maple creemee, read a good book, and have a good laugh with friends and family. A celebration of life will be on Saturday, August 23, 2025, 1 to 3 p.m., at Bethany Church in Montpelier. Please visit awrfh.com to share your memories and condolences.
This article appears in Aug 6-12, 2025.