PORTLAND, Ore. - Estelle R. Ferguson, a former resident of Williamsburg and Northampton, died peacefully Jan. 28, 2012, in Portland, Ore.

Estelle was born May 20, 1927 in Malden, where she was trained and certified as a War Emergency Secretary in 1945. She attended the Malden Baptist Church, where she met her future husband, the Rev. Dr. I. Gordon Ferguson.

Following her husband's graduation from seminary, the couple worked together on behalf of the churches they served, including the Grace Congregational Church in Holyoke (1966-73) and the Williamsburg Congregational Church (1973-81), among others. Upon retirement, Estelle and Gordon were members of the First Churches in Northampton and participated as representatives to the U.C.C. area conferences. They moved to Concord, N.H., in 1993.

Estelle created a warm and loving home for her family. She served tea in her home each afternoon so that her family could pause to relax and share their stories of the day. She enjoyed family camping trips in New Hampshire and Maine, cross-country skiing in the winter, and swimming at the Northampton YMCA. She volunteered in the Northampton elementary schools, providing help to children struggling to read.

Estelle was an accomplished seamstress, and established her own local custom tailoring business, called Made Especially for You. She was also a well known figure at the Northampton Farmers Market during the 1980s, selling home-baked breads, pies, and cookies each Saturday.

Estelle's twinkling spirit and creative enthusiasm were captured in a Daily Hampshire Gazette article written about her in 1979. Following her husband's death in 2000, Estelle moved to the Northwest to be near her daughters.

She is survived by her three children, Alan Ferguson of Stoughton, Wis., Pamela Ferguson of Seattle and Betsy Ferguson of Portland, Ore., as well as four grandchildren, Kerry Hall, Allison Hall, Natasha Ferguson and Matthew Ferguson, and her sister, Dorothy Dodge of Orono, Maine.