NORTHAMPTON — Charlotte “Bunny” Trudeau grew up in a big family on a farm outside of Salisbury, Vermont, and got her nickname from being born on Easter Sunday in 1930, her children said.

Her family didn’t have a lot of money, but they were close.

At 16, she left Vermont with Viola, one of her eight siblings. Bunny stood just over 5 feet, with a biting wit and generous heart. She had olive skin with jet black hair and striking dark brown eyes, features her daughthers said came from her Native American ancestry.

When she and her sister got off the bus in Northampton, in 1946, Bunny met Bob Elliott, a sailor on leave and in uniform. They married two years later.

The Elliotts settled on Rust Avenue in Northampton, down the street from Bob’s parents. At one time, eight Elliott families lived on the block. Bob and Bunny had daughters, Candace, or Candy, and Sharon, who were born in the 1950s.

It was no wonder Bunny donated to the Gazette’s Sidney F. Smith Toy Fund, her daughters said.

“She just loved kids,” Sharon Elliott said. “She grew up in the Depression and she didn’t have anything. That really touched her. But every year she could she made sure she donated.”

The Toy Fund provides certificates redeemable at participating local retailers to eligible families who can use them to buy holiday gifts at participating stores through Dec. 31, 2016.

Named after a former business manager at the Gazette, the fund began in 1933 to help families in need during the Depression. Today, the fund distributes vouchers to families for each child from age 1 to 14. Eligible families must live in any Hampshire County community except Ware, or in the southern Franklin County towns of Deerfield, Sunderland, Whately, Shutesbury and Leverett.

Bunny died Jan. 15, surrounded by family at Cooley Dickinson Hospital. She was 85. In lieu of flowers, her family asked that mourners donate to the Toy Fund.

In life, Bunny was one of those people with a magnetic personality — the type of person you wanted to talk to. In the 1960s, when Candy and Sharon were growing up, Bunny wore her black hair in a twisted bouffant.

“It was always way up in the air,” Sharon Elliott said. “She never left the house without her makeup and she always dressed nice.”

On Halloween, Bunny would take the neighborhood kids — many of them cousins — out trick or treating.

“Our whole neighborhood would go out for Halloween,” Candy Roberts said. “It was a different time then. We could always count on her to be the life of the party. She would always dress up.”

She and Bob were close, her children said.

“When you saw Bunny you always saw Bob,” Candy said.

Bob and Bunny worked at the former Northampton State Hospital. He had worked there since he was 14, eventually running the hospital bookbinding shop, and later the hospital garage, before retiring in the 1990s. Bunny worked as an attendant who gardened with patients in the summer.

They went to parties together. Both of them told jokes, but when Bob would go too far, Bunny would rein him in, Candy Roberts said.

“They were the perfect couple,” she said. When he died in 1995, “it was like a piece of her was gone after that.”

There are fewer Elliotts on Rust Avenue these days. Sharon lived with Bunny for 20 years before Bunny died, and she still lives in the old home. Candy lives next door. Another family member, Estelle Elliott, and her grown son Chuck live two houses away.

Ellie Cook, a former Gazette copy editor, said that when she moved to the Rust Avenue in the 1980s, the neighborhood was lively — and still is. For Christmas one year, she baked Bunny some cookies.

Soon after, Bunny gave her a gift, a painting on dried shelf fungus. It depicted a cabin with a wood-burning stove nestled in some woods.

The two would cross paths often. Cook said Bunny was an avid Gazette reader and every year read stories about the Sidney F. Smith Toy Fund leading up to Christmas.

“She would get really into it,” Cook said. “I loved Bunny.”

Berkshire Children and Families at 220 Russell St. in Hadley, verifies families’ eligibility for the toy fund and the Gazette covers costs associated with the drive, freeing all donations to fund the vouchers. Most families who receive assistance are referred by social service agencies.

The following stores are participating this year: A2Z Science and Learning Store, 57 King St., Northampton; Deals & Steals, One Pearl St., Northampton; JCPenney, 341 Russell St., Hadley; The Toy Box, 201 N. Pleasant St., Amherst; Wilson’s Dept. Store, 258 Main St., Greenfield; Sam’s Outdoor Outfitters, 227 Russell St., Hadley; and Target, 367 Russell St., Hadley.

Donations to the Toy Fund may be dropped off at or mailed to the Daily Hampshire Gazette at 115 Conz St. in Northampton, 01060, or made through Gazettenet at toyfund.gazettenet.com.

Jack Suntrup can be reached at jsuntrup@gazettenet.com.

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