Lucia "Lupine" Cushman,91

Lucia “Lupine” Cushman died at her home in Williamstown on March 13, surrounded by her family. She was 91.

Born in Syracuse, N.Y., Lupine was the daughter of landscape architect and city planner Clarence Howard and teacher Lucia Barber Howard. She was raised in St. Louis and Washington, D.C. It was her father who nicknamed her, and she called him her “best buddy.” Every day after school in Washington, she would walk down to the corner to meet him when he got off the bus from work; arm-in-arm, they would stroll home talking about the day’s events.

She attended the Madeira School in Greenway, Va., where she was a tennis champion, and then Middlebury College, where she studied fine arts under Arthur K. D. Healy, had leading roles in stage productions, and belonged to the Tri Delta sorority. She spent the summer of 1951 in France with the Experiment in International Living, and also visited London and Edinburgh.

While at Middlebury she began dating Norton Cushman of Bennington, Vt. When she graduated in 1952, her family sought to discourage the relationship by sending her off to secretarial school in Boston, but this strategy backfired in spectacular fashion, and Lupine and Norton were married in the fall.

The couple built a home in the Berkshires, where he was employed by the Sprague Electric Company, and raised a family. Lupine was a member of the Williamstown hospital auxiliary, performed in two plays at Williams College, and made costumes for a third. She also took a jewelry-making course from Joan Grant. She and her husband were friends with the Descognets, Winants, and Ellisons, among others.

1959 her daughter Andrea was born with a medical condition that the doctors said was terminal. Lupine refused to accept this verdict and, with love and a strict diet, nursed Andrea to a full, long-lasting recovery.

In 1960 she moved the family to Belgium, where Sprague had transferred her husband; they lived abroad for two years. In 1972 they relocated to South Hero, Vt., on Lake Champlain, learning to sail and waterski and socializing with the Riehles, Hazeletts, and Nyes. She was employed by Bard Home Decorating in Burlington, Vt. for eleven years. In 1984, they sold their home, bought a 44-foot double-ender sailboat, and spent the next four years living aboard, cruising the Maine coast, Chesapeake Bay, and the Bahamas.

When they finally returned to dry land, they settled in Underhill Center, Vt., and later South Burlington. Following the death of her husband, Lupine returned to Williamstown to be close to her sons.

Like her father, Lupine was good-natured, unassuming, and highly creative. For years she made birthday and Christmas cards for her children and grandchildren; whimsical and humorous, they were often elaborate, with foldouts or pop-ups, and often featured colorful birds. Genealogy was a pursuit, and she made beautiful, hand-lettered family trees for both sides of the family. Her piece de resistance was a series of woodcuts depicting the animals of the Chinese zodiac. Like many in her family before her she was also musically inclined, playing the piano when she was young and later taking up the harmonica, which she played on special occasions.

Lupine considered herself fortunate in the extreme to have lived the life she lived.

She was predeceased by her husband in 2007 and by her sister, Caroline Fletcher, in 1989. She is survived by her son Michael and his wife Lisa of Williamstown; her son Kim of North Adams; her daughter Andrea Ferguson and husband Scott of Santa Fe; grandchildren Payson, Avery, Royce, Lucia, and Arno; nine great-grandchildren; and various cousins, nephews, and nieces.

will be no service; interment will be at Park Lawn Cemetery in Bennington and will be private. Memorial contributions may be sent to the Bennington Museum, 75 Main St., Bennington, VT 05201, or to Hospice Care in the Berkshires, 877 South St., Suite 1W, Pittsfield, MA 01201. To add to the Book of Memories, please visit www.flynndagnolifuneralhomes.com.