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 Helen Marie Lidstone
August 14, 2007
Helen Marie Lidstone, 77, of Kimball Farms on Walker Street in Lenox, died Tuesday at Berkshire Medical Center after a long illness.
Born April 23, 1930, in Sioux City, Iowa, daughter of August and Lulu Laudnschlger Stichnoth, she grew up and attended schools there. She graduated from Purdue University in 1952, with a degree in home economics and moved to Pittsfield in 1954, when her husband took a job at General Electric.
Mrs. Lidstone was primarily a homemaker. She also served as treasurer and secretary of the First United Methodist Church, and sang in its bell choir. She also served as president of the board of Berkshire Place, president of Chapter V of PEO, and in various leadership positions at the Junior League and The Mount in Lenox. She enjoyed book groups, investors' groups, bridge, cribbage and the New York Times Sunday crossword puzzle.
Her husband, Jack Lidstone, whom she married May 28, 1952, died in 1984.
She leaves a son, David Lidstone of Princeton, N.J.; three daughters, Karen Dingley of Providence, R.I., Susan Theiss of Wilmette, Ill., and Amy Lidstone of Boston; and eight grandchildren.
FUNERAL NOTICE -- A memorial service for Helen Marie Lidstone, who died Aug. 14, 2007, will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday at the First United Methodist Church, 55 Fenn St., Pittsfield. A period of visitation will be held from 4 to 7 p.m. Friday at WELLINGTON FUNERAL HOME, 220 East St., Pittsfield. In lieu of flowers, the family kindly requests that donations be sent in Mrs. Lidstone's name to The First United Methodist Church or the American Diabetes Association (www.diabetes.org).
Following the church service, there will be a reception at the Country Club of Pittsfield. Since her arrival in 1954, Mrs. Lidstone lived year-round in Pittsfield except for a four-year stint in the 1970s. She dearly loved the Berkshires and its hills regardless of the season. Over 50 years, Mrs. Lidstone befriended many, and she leaves behind a legacy of service and loyal friendship to the Pittsfield community. After leaving the Sioux City home of her father, a dairyman, she met her future husband, Jack, at Purdue University, marrying him shortly after graduation. Before coming to Pittsfield, where the Lidstones raised their family, Jack served in Korea. He died in 1984, not long after retiring from GE.
Mrs. Lidstone was always active in the Pittsfield community, reaching out in myriad ways to the area's needy families. She was, for example, a steady support to a neighborhood survivor of a near-fatal automobile accident, and she regularly pitched in at feeding time to help a local mother with newborn triplets. Mrs. Lidstone often considered herself to be repaying the support she had received from the community when, as a very young mother, her husband Jack was stricken with polio. She was also an avid duplicate bridge-player and sought-after partner who regularly managed to squeeze several games a week between her other meetings and responsibilities. She loved games of all kinds, and never refused a round of cribbage or any other game with her grandchild.
She leaves a daughter-in-law, Susan Lidstone; three sons-in-law, Mark Dingley, Paul Theiss, and Finbar Fleming; eight grandchildren, Sheila, Sam, Peter, Katherine, William, David, Emily and Jack; and many nieces and nephews.
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