Edith J. Byington, 89

02/10/2008

ALFORD â€' Edith J. Byington, 89, a longtime resident of Alford Road, died Sunday, Feb. 10, 2008, at Laurel Lake Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Lee. She was the former Alford librarian for 23 years. Born in Great Neck, N.Y., on Aug. 18, 1918, daughter of Frederic and Lillian Helmer Byington, she attended public schools in Great Neck and graduated from Penn Hall Junior College in Chambersburg, Pa. She moved to Alford with her parents in May. Ms. Byington was employed for many years at the American Institute of Economic Research. She also had worked for Berkshire School as an administrative assistant and at the former Dehon Seminary in Great Barrington. While at the institute, she met and befriended the late Helen Payne, who came to live with her in Alford, where they were both active in village life. Both were 50-year members of the Stockbridge Congregational Church as well as the Alford Garden Club. Ms. Byington loved gardening and she and her friend Ellen Brown, through the Garden Club, cleared the corner now known as Botham Park, which had been deeded to the town. Along with Lincoln Smith, who selected and removed trees and bushes, the two women cleared the property, which today has a bench shaded by a fringe tree. She leaves two brothers, Robert M. and his wife, Ann, of Duxbury and David M. and his wife, Helen Jane, of Southwick; a niece, Lynn Byington Rowe, and her children Callie Rowe Hays and Benjamin Rowe, and a nephew, Russell C. Byington, and his wife, Eva, and their children Amy and Daniel Byington. FUNERAL NOTICE -A memorial service celebrating the life of Edith J. Byington will be held at Stockbridge Congregational Church at a time to be announced. Donations in her memory may be made to the Stockbridge Congregational Church or to the Alford Garden Club, through Finnerty & Stevens Funeral Home, 426 Main St., Great Barrington, MA 01230. Remembrances, memories and reflections may be sent to her family through www.finnertyandstevens.com

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Edith J. Byington, 89

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