Virginia Ford Fletcher

Virginia Ford Fletcher died peacefully on March 8, 2023 at RiverMead in Peterborough, New Hampshire at age 90. Ginny was born August 18, 1932 to Franklin Jones Ford and his wife Edna Rothwell who died in childbirth. Franklin was remarried to Katherine Skilling, and Ginny had two half-brothers, Franklin Jr. and Henry, who both pre-deceased her. Ginny was also close with her uncle Howard Ford and his wife Beebee, who had no children of their own. They supported her in attending Holton-Arms School in Washington from which she graduated, and they eventually left her ownership of the Union Iron Works in Washington, DC.

After spending a memorable 1946 summer in Paris which was still recovering from the war, Ginny set off the following year for Switzerland to study at the École Internationale in Geneva. She had a memorable and wonderful year there until she contracted polio during the worldwide epidemic. Told she would never have children, she ultimately bore six. Required to wear a back brace for the rest of her long life, she never let it deter her from attending numberless cultural events and traveling extensively well into her final years.

At 18, Ginny married William C. Howlett, an MIT graduate. They married on December 23, 1950 and eventually settled in McLean, VA, where she formed a number of lifelong friendships. Bill took on managing Ginny’s family iron works. Their five children, along with the occasional exchange student, consumed Ginny’s time and energy. Their marriage ended in 1965.

In 1966, Ginny met a widowed Navy officer named Emmett Boutwell and they married in 1967, bringing his daughter Joanne into the family. Sadly, Emmett fell ill and died suddenly in January 1972. In 1976 Ginny moved to Williamstown, MA. Before long, friends introduced her to a recently divorced physicist named Ewan Fletcher, 17 years her senior. They married in 1979 and lived in Concord, Williamstown, and later at Kimball Farms in Lenox. Ewan died in 2013 and Ginny remained at Kimball Farms until moving to Peterborough in 2021.

Ginny took full advantage of the many cultural riches of Berkshire County. Yet she managed to find time to give back to her community by serving as a founding board member of both the Williamstown Rural Land Foundation and the Berkshire International Club, and also on the boards of Greylock A Better Chance and Friends of the Williamstown/Milne Public Library. She was a devoted mother, stepmother, grandmother and great grandmother as well as a passionate devotee and supporter of opera, dance, music and theatre. One of her final achievements was writing her memoirs which will soon be published by the family.

She is survived by her children Joanne Ketchie (Hugh) of Raleigh, NC, Jennifer Howlett (Mark Stevens) of Williamstown, Christopher Howlett (Amy Gerhardt) of Lovettsville, VA, Elizabeth Howlett (Michael DiBiase) of Providence, RI, Anne Houser (Ron) of New Haven, VT, Louise Howlett (Lindsay Brown) of Dublin, NH, and thirteen grandchildren, ten great grandchildren, plus three older step-children and their children and grandchildren.

A Celebration of Life will be held at All Saints Episcopal Church in Peterborough, NH on April 29 at 2pm with a reception following. She will be laid to rest at a later date beside her beloved Emmett Boutwell, at Arlington National Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in her honor to the Williamstown Rural Lands Foundation https://rurallands.org/membership-donation/ or The Metropolitan Opera Company https://www.metopera.org/support/make-a-gift/support-extraordinary-opera/.

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