Helen Holt

Helen Pennock Holt "Penny" Helen Pennock Holt "Penny" died peacefully on Sunday, June 16, 2013, at The Hospice House in Charlottesville, Virginia, from kidney and heart failure. Penny was born in West Hartford, Connecticut, on March 28, 1941. She was the daughter of the late Guy Bryan Holt and Helen Pennock Holt. She graduated from Saint Mary's-in-the-Mountains high school in New Hampshire and received a BA in sociology from Boston University in 1966. She received an MA in Counseling from Saint Joseph College in 1981 and an MA in Religious Studies from Yale University in 1988. She worked in counseling early on but found her true passion later in life in Shakespeare. She was a life long student and loved to share her knowledge of Shakespeare through teaching classes at the Chautauqua Institution and Hartford College for Women. She lived in Brattleboro, Vermont, near her family farm from 1990 until 2003, and then moved to Charlottesville, Virginia, to be close to her son and his family. She enjoyed traveling, opera, theatre, music, Vermont, summers at Chautauqua, the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Canada, The Miller Center of Public Affairs in Charlottesville, and her grandchildren with whom she shared many of these experiences (maybe too many). She is survived by her sister, Eunice Van Vleck and husband, Dave, of Middlebury, Vermont; her brother, Stan Holt and wife, Marge, of Townshend, Vermont; her twin sister, Kathy Barnes and husband, Travis, of Tiger, Georgia; and many nieces and nephews. She is also survived by her son, Joseph Pennock Hoskins and his wife, Elvira, and their three daughters, Ellie, Lucia, and Alice of Charlottesville, Virginia. She was preceded in death by her brother, Nick Holt. A celebration of her life will be held from 6 until 8 p.m. Friday, June 21, 2013, at 864 Locust Avenue, Charlottesville, Virginia. A family memorial service will be held on Sunday, August 11, 2013, where she grew up spending summers, The Pines, Skaneateles, New York. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to The Chautauqua Foundation, P.O. Box 28, Chautauqua, NY 14722 or The Pines Fund c/o Alan Cooper, 2632 Pine Grove Rd., Skaneateles, NY 13151.

This obituary was originally published in the Daily Progress.