Obituary: Lydia Hawes

Lydia Hawes, 93, of Longboat Key, died May 23.

Born April 11, 1920, in Rock, Mich., she was devoted to her family and was a schoolteacher at Oakmont High School in Massachusetts. She volunteered at Sarasota Memorial Hospital and was a longtime member of Sarasota Yacht Club.

Mrs. Hawes and her high school sweetheart and husband of 68 years, Melvin, enjoyed spending summers in Wisconsin on the vegetable farm where they grew their own produce.

She is remembered by her worldwide friends for her thoughtfulness and humor and by her family for her kindness, boundless spirit and faultless resilience, along with her stream of dinner bread, baked from home ground wheat berries, and the incredible resilience that saturated each piece.

Mrs. Hawes was preceded in death by her daughter, Helen, who died in 1996.

She is survived by her husband, Melvin; daughter, Jane; three grandchildren; and one great-grandson.
A private memorial will be held.

Donations can be made to the Helen Hawes Anderson Fund at UVM, 411 Main St., Burlington, Vt., 05401; or the Sarasota Memorial Hospital Volunteers, 1700 S. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota, Fla., 34239.