The Friends of the Ulysses S. Grant Cottage

Contact us

PO Box 2294, Wilton, NY 12831
(518) 584-4353   
info@grantcottage.org

1989 Founding Member of The Friends of the Ulysses S. Grant Cottage Lorraine Wescott

Lorraine Wescott is remembered for her passion, energy, and commitment to serving her community and preserving local history. She was the Wilton Town Historian for 20 years, a member of the Wilton Heritage Society, and a 1989 founding member and Vice President/Treasurer of The Friends of the Ulysses S. Grant Cottage.

Each year we honor individuals that carry on Ms. Wescott’s commitment and unwavering dedication to Grant Cottage, its community, and residents with the Lorraine Wescott Friend of Grant Cottage Memorial Award.

In honor & appreciation of our friend

Jeannine Woutersz, Trustee Emerita of Grant Cottage

Jeannine “Jean” Mary Woutersz (née Mullen), 93, of Wilton NY passed away peacefully at Saratoga Hospital after a brief illness, surrounded by family and friends. She is survived by her son David (Cindy Brown), grandson/adoptive son Paul (Rebecca Rice), Malcolm Orton (Janet), grandsons Tim (Jordan) and Travis, granddaughter Jessica Lacher-Feldman (Thomas Little), great grandchildren Cassius, Phineas, Eli, Emmet, and Princess Madelyn. She is predeceased by her husband of 53 years, Alex (d.1999) and son Joe (d. 2016). Born in 1930 to the late Irving Mullen and Lorenda Hare, Jean spent her childhood years in Troy, NY. She married Alexander Woutersz of Wilton, NY where they established a deep connection to their community. Jean worked for 25 years at the Wilton Developmental Center and 13 years at the Yaddo artists’ retreat in Saratoga Springs.
Jean was a well-known and beloved Wilton resident, with an encyclopedic knowledge of local history. She served as the Wilton, New York Town Historian for 21 years, working tirelessly and passionately to share, document, honor, and preserve the past through securing historic designations, important building and land preservation efforts, and many more small and big projects that helped the community better appreciate and understand its own rich history. Her many accomplishments include the creation of the Orra Phelps Nature Preserve and Historic Marker, saving multiple local historic buildings from demolition; and mapping, documenting, and restoring local cemeteries with her dear friend Betty Harrington and fellow members of the local community. In 2003, she authored an illustrated book on Wilton with the help of numerous fellow lovers of local history and collaborated on a beloved annual calendar for many years for the Wilton community that featured historic photographs from the area. Jean’s commitment to the community she lived in, and its rich history is evident in all that she did, and with her tireless and enthusiastic volunteer work with the Wilton Heritage Society and the Friends of Grants Cottage. It is through this important historical work, she met some of her dearest friends whom she regarded as her family.
Jean was known by her persistent wit and intelligence which she carried to her last day. Nicknamed “Sharpie,” Jean was kind, strong-willed, practical, fiercely independent, and was energetic and passionate in her life’s pursuits. A lover of animals, she monitored, cared for, and befriended wild animals and birds in her many decades in her Wilton property, and had a deep and constant affection for cats, which seemed to find her and love her right back. Her heart was made of gold, and she attracted the same kind of people – friends whose selfless, neighborly efforts enabled her to stay in her home and remain independent through her last days. Jean’s memory and legacy will live on in the work she did to preserve and document the history of her community, and in the hearts of those who love her and hold her in their memories forever.
In lieu of flowers, donations in memory of Jeannine can be made to the Wilton Heritage Society, 5 Parkhurst Road, Gansevoort New York 12831.