Earline Marsh
Earline Viola Marsh, 93, of Waitsfield, Moretown and Montpelier died July 31, 2024, at her home at Mansfield Place in Essex Junction, Vermont.
Born in Attleboro, Massachusetts, on December 29, 1930, Earline was the daughter of Earl R. Marsh and Viola I. (Cheltra) Marsh. She had an older sister, Mary Burrows, and is survived by her younger sister Audrey Barnes, and two brothers, Earl Marsh and David Marsh. They grew up and attended schools in Pawtucket, Rhode Island.
Earline was married to Joe Parkinson for 25 years. They bought the Spring Hill Farm in Waitsfield in the 1960s, built a ski chalet and moved the family there. When her children were teenagers, Earline started a child care center for skiers at Glen Ellen (now Sugarbush’s Mount Ellen.) Earline had a summer camp for preschoolers at her house which eventually morphed into Spring Hill School, founded by her daughter Laurie in 1984. The 1980s saw her divorce and subsequent marriage to Wavell Cowan, with whom she lived for 40 years, until Wavell’s passing in 2022. While living in Moretown, Earline became a member of the North American Hand Papermakers; she attended international meetings and taught hand papermaking workshops in schools and in her Moretown studio.
Earline taught third grade at Waterbury Elementary School in the 1970s, then taught second grade at Moretown Elementary School and served as the school’s first full-time principal. In the 1980s, she was principal of Mathewson School in Barre City. She worked as supervisor of student teaching in the Adult Degree Program at Vermont College. Her volunteer work included being president of the statewide board of Parents Anonymous, now known as Prevent Child Abuse Vermont, president of the board of the Family Center of Washington County, being a member of the Harwood Union School Board and a volunteer in the Harwood Library. She was editor of Central Vermont Magazine, she wrote for the Times Argus and its weekly Country Courier, and she researched and wrote history sections for the Waitsfield Telecom and Champlain Valley Telecom phone books. She was a member of the Poetry Society of Vermont and worked with Ann Day editing her yearly poetry calendars. In her later years in Montpelier, she was a volunteer at the Gary Residence, bringing poetry readings, art projects and storytelling circles to the residents.
Earline is survived by her children and their spouses, Glenn and Donna Parkinson; Laurie (Gallagher Parkinson) Shelton and Larry Shelton; Linell (Parkinson) Vilaseca and Armando Vilaseca; and Gary and Elizabeth Parkinson. Earline's grandchildren are Caitlin and Kristen Gallagher, Cooper and Tucker Parkinson, and Armando J. Vilaseca. Great-granddaughters are Olivia and Jillian Thompson Gallagher and Isabella Vilaseca.
Earline’s family is grateful to the kind people at Mansfield Place in Essex Junction for their caring assistance and to the people from Bayada Hospice for helping Earline feel so comfortable in her last days.
In lieu of flowers folks can send donations to Prevent Child Abuse Vermont. Condolences can be sent to
