CORNISH — A hot, humid summer day, a field dotted with hay bales and Shirley Sullivan, as always, was eager to get to work.

“The hay field was up in Meriden and Dale, Fred, Shirley and I went up together,” remembers Judy Rook, of Cornish, who with her husband Dale, frequently helped Fred and Shirley Sullivan out at their Brokenridge Farm off Route 120. “Fred was driving the tractor and Dale was grabbing the bales and stacking them in the truck. Shirley and I were the ones throwing the bales up on the truck.”

It was in the mid-90s that day, Judy said, and because these bales were at the bottom of the field they had dirt in them she guessed they weighed close to 60 pounds. But with Shirley it was more fun than hard work.

“She was always good for a laugh,” Rook said. “No matter how hard we were working, we were laughing about it and joking.”

When the hay was in that day, Sullivan was probably not done and likely moved on to some other project at the farm or went home to make dinner for Fred, their two children and the Rooks. Perhaps she later spent some time preparing for the cattle judging contest at the Cornish Fair or a 4H class or worked in her flower and vegetable gardens.

“She was so hard working, I don’t know how she found time to do other things,” said her friend and neighbor Jo Jewell.

Sullivan, who died July 28, 2022, at age 84 from cancer, blended a Yankee work ethic few could match with good humor and love of family and community.

“She was always active, never tired,” Fred said. “I was trying to keep up with her.” As for throwing hay that day, Fred had seen it plenty of times. “She could throw hay as good as any man.”

Sullivan’s heavy workload was not a cause for complaining but a source of joy and love she put into all she did.

“She was just amazing,” said her daughter Joan. “I don’t know how she did it. She had a hot meal on the table every single night and we always had fresh baked desserts. She could do it all and never complained.”

After his wife passed, Fred said a few people remarked, ‘she is resting now and doesn’t have to work like she used to.’ I corrected them. She didn’t have to work; she loved it.”

“Shirley was probably the hardest working woman I ever met in my life,” said Scott Walker, who for more than 25 years would come to the farm to help out when he could and to be around Shirley and Fred.

“It was a joy to be around them,” said Walker, who was a generation younger than the Sullivans and often came to the farm with his young children. “I don’t think I ever saw them have a bad day. They were always in a good mood; super, salt of the earth people.”

Sullivan was not born and raised a farm girl as she grew up in Claremont. But that changed quickly when she married Fred in 1959, a few years after they met at a square dance competition at Stevens High School.

As Fred tells it, they both learned to square dance at their respective 4H clubs and at least 15 clubs came to the competition one year in the mid-1950s. The contest came down to Shirley’s team of boys and girls and Fred’s. The judge could not decide a winner so he switched the partners of the groups, Fred recalled.

“I was lucky enough to get Shirley and that is how I met her,” adding that they both laughed over the years debating which club won the competition.

Not long after they were married, Sullivans took over the farm Fred’s dad started with a few horses and cows in the early 1940s when he came down from Plainfield. The Sullivans would increase the 200-acre farm to an average of 100 milking cows along with growing hay and corn, raising pigs and sheep and running a sugaring operation that grew to 10,000 taps.

“She became a farm girl very fast,” said her lifelong friend, Betty Walker, no relation to Scott. “She ran all the machines and did all the things Fred did.”

“You couldn’t have a better farmer’s wife than Shirley,” said Fred. “She was always stepping into help. If somebody called in sick, she filled the spot, no matter what it was. She milked more cows than anyone on the farm.”

Fred and Shirley relied on and were forever grateful for the frequent help on the farm from the Rooks, Scott Walker and so many others in the community.

“The town of Cornish is a community that helped us keep going,” said Fred, remembering the countless times people were on hand to generously volunteer their time. “It was a family thing. Any help we had, the wife and kids would come also.”

Joan said if there was “hay down” in the fields it was not uncommon for people to stop and help.

And when the work day was finished, there was usually a fabulous homemade meal. “No matter how many people were there, she managed to feed everyone,” Scott Walker said.

For 20 years, Shirley organized the cattle show at the annual Cornish Fair every August. Joan said her mother hand wrote all the entries beginning in the dead of winter and at fair time, dutifully recorded the judge’s decision on the cows that placed in the top six.

“That is where my wife excelled. We had close to 100 head of cattle coming to the fair every year, said Fred.

Her years serving the fair were recognized in 2021 when the new livestock pavilion on the Cornish Fair Grounds was named for Fred and Shirley.

“It was one of her happiest days when they dedicated that building to her,” Fred said. “We had no idea they were going to do it.”

Besides their own vegetable and well-manicured flower gardens, Shirley sold syrup and her homemade fudge at the weekly farmer’s market and the Sullivans also grew a large community garden in Cornish Flat that allowed people to pick fresh produce then deposit money in an honor box.

“My wife and I had a garden and we would often say, “Well, the garden looks nice but it is not a Shirley Sullivan garden,” said Scott Walker. “Her gardens were impeccable.”

Though it may seem like it, Sullivan was not all work and no play. She found time for snowmobiling, downhill skiing, dancing on Saturday nights and regular card games with friends.

“Shirley was a big influence in town and everybody loved her,” said another close friend, Kay Kibbe.

Sullivan always had time for others, particularly anyone in need. Betty Walker often saw her friend’s capacity to reach out.

“She was the kind of person who, when somebody needed help or was in trouble, instead of saying, ‘let me know if I can do anything,’ she just did it,” Walker said. “She didn’t ask that question; she was over there the next day with a dinner or something like that. One year she and her husband came over when my husband was in the hospital and planted our whole vegetable garden.”

In late winter and early spring, Shirley took on the sugaring operation at the shack on Route 120.

When the sap was running good, boiling was not just a daytime activity. Fred recalled one sap season with a “great run” and it was Shirley who took up residence in the sugar shack to keep stoking the fire.

“She boiled sap continuously day and night for one week,” remembered Fred, adding that his wife kept a cot behind the evaporator to grab cat naps.

It was more than the farm, where Sullivan’s work ethic was on display. She served on the New Hampshire Jersey Cattle Club, the N.H. Maple Producers’ Association, was a Cornish Fair director, a founding member of the Cornish Rescue Squad and a member of the fire department at a time when most of the men were working at other jobs during the day.

“It was her, me and three other women,” said Judy Rook. “The five of us took the level 1 training for firefighting. If there was a fire call, we were the ones that drove the trucks to the scene.”

After Fred and Shirley retired from farm life, they traveled frequently, managing to hit all 50 states and Walker and her husband often traveled with them.

“If you went anywhere with Shirley, it didn’t matter where, you always knew you would have a good time,” Walker said.

As she slowed down and the cancer began to take its toll, Joan said it could not rob her of her spirit.

“You never heard her complain, even when she was sick up to the day she died,” said Joan. “I hope I can be as strong as her all the way through.”

Fred remembers his wife as “a ball of fire” that nothing could slow her down.

“I miss her. We had a great life. Don’t think there was anything left on our bucket list.”

Patrick O’Grady can be reached at pogclmt@gmail.com

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