Jan. 4 is now Helen Doxsee Day

Posted Wednesday, December 27, 2017 2:51 pm

Journal staff

MANCHESTER — Manchester resident Helen Doxsee was presented with a town proclamation honoring her 100th birthday Dec. 21.

Doxsee, who was joined by her daughter Heidi Johnson and son-in-law Eric Johnson, accepted the proclamation from Manchester Select Board Vice Chair Wayne E. Bell. The proclamation, which describes Doxsee as "a loyal and proud native daughter of Vermont," also declares that her Jan. 4 birthday will be known as "Helen Doxsee Day."

Doxsee was born in Brattleboro on Jan. 4, 1918, and moved to Manchester in 2006. From 1942 to 1945 she served in the U.S. Coast Guard, enlisting as a clerk in Seattle, Washington and completing her service with the rank of Chief Petty Officer. Following the war she met and married Arthur Doxsee, who was later deployed in the Korean War and retired as a Colonel. The pair later moved to Bennington where they raised three children, welcomed seven grandchildren, and enjoyed four great-grandchildren.

Since then, Doxsee has served as a Semper Paratus, Always Ready (SPAR) in the U.S. Coast Guard, as a member of the "Women of the Sea Services, and as a supporter of the Women's Memorial in Washington D.C. For fifteen years Doxsee worked in the County Clerk's Office of Bennington County, and she has also volunteered for numerous non-profits and charitable projects.

"This Centurion NASCAR fan lives a self-reliant lifestyle in service to others in the finest tradition of Manchester," read the proclamation. "Be it known and resolved that we, the Selectboard of the Town of Manchester, do hereby congratulation, thank, and honor Helen Tasker Doxsee on behalf of the citizens of Manchester and proclaim that, in appreciation of her service and longevity, that the 4th day of January 2018 be known as Helen Doxsee Day in Manchester, Vt."