Amy Bishop Dewey (family friend, standing with her sister Carrie)

Good evening. I’m Amy Bishop Dewey and this is my sister Carrie Bishop Zimmerman. We are Ruth Bishop’s daughters, and we are By and Tim Bishop’s sisters.

Aunt Libby, for that is always who she has been to us, has been a presence in our lives for as long as I can remember. Mother and Aunt Libby had connections to each other that long preceded my knowledge and even my existence, going back before the war. They were long time cohorts in the Junior League and the Wilmington Flower Market. They were two of a group of good friends who created the Wednesday Club, a lunch bunch, which by the way met on Mondays. Aunt Libby was the creative force behind the Craft Show at the Church of the Advent Mayfair.

Mother and Aunt Libby became part of the permanent collection of the Brandywine River Museum as they waited by the gate to be among the first to guide upon its opening in 1971. They were on the ground floor as much of the museum took on that has made it a landmark in Chester County and the nation: the antique show, the Christmas exhibits, just to name a few. They decorated the White House Christmas tree in 1984, with the critters that Aunt Libby and others had created. The rest, as they say, is history. I spent untold hours knocking about the Deans’ house, hanging out with Carrie and Lisa, playing in the barn and the boxwood garden, lounging on any one of her wonderful Golden Retrievers, and generally feeling comfortable and happy to be around her. I have been in awe of the adoring friendship mother shared with Aunt Libby. They were peas in a pod. They were fortunate to have had one another.

I know that I am, and I am sure you all are, better for having had Libby Dean as a friend. Thank you for making it possible to honour such a wonderful woman in a place that she loved so much.