GLOUCESTER: Martha “Toppy” Bott passed away peacefully at the Addison Gilbert Hospital on December 6, 2009. She was 90 years old. She was the wife of the late David R. Bott. They shared sixty-one years of marriage.
Born in Cambridge on April 3, 1919, she was the daughter of the late Dr. Melvin T. Copeland and Elsa Helbling Copeland.
Toppy was an outdoor girl and shared her love and knowledge of the natural world with her husband, children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. She spent many summer afternoons aboard the boat with her husband and family trolling for mackerel or bluefish in Ipswich Bay.
Toppy loved to garden and thoroughly enjoyed the many conversations she had with people passing by when she was out working in one of her beautiful perennial gardens that surrounded her home in Annisquam.
She thoroughly enjoyed the simple pleasures of spending time with her family and took great joy in all of their accomplishments. Her nine great grandchildren captured a very special place in her heart and brought the biggest smiles to her face.
She will be deeply missed by her four children, Sue Kuendig, Lee Cunningham and her husband, John, David Bott, Jr., Peter Bott and his partner, Donnie Cotter; her six grandchildren, Martha Kuendig Kondel and her husband, Jaspreet, Amy Kuendig Anderson and her husband, Sam, Tad Cunningham and his wife, Jane, Andy Cunningham and his wife, Kelsey McNiff, Theo Bott, Ben Cunningham and his fiancé, Kaia Johns; nine great-grandchildren, Elizabeth, Amelia and JP Kondel, Wyatt and Adelaide Anderson, Aidan, Cole, Thea, and Lyall Cunningham. She was also predeceased by her sister, Elsie Brown.
A celebration of her life will be held on Saturday, December 19th at 11 am at the Annisquam Village Church, 834 Washington St., Gloucester. Gifts in her memory may be made to The Essex County Greenbelt Association, 82 Eastern Ave, Essex, MA 01929 or to the Wellspring House, 302 Essex Ave, Gloucester, MA 01930.