Gillie Waddington

On July 31, 2025, Gillie Waddington passed away, surrounded by her wife and soul mate Carolyn, her sister Jane, and her devoted dog Gracie. Through her illness, many helping hands appeared and in the last weeks she had many visitors, including members of the Dorothy Cotton Jubilee Singers who came to sing her on. Her best friend, Heather, and her oldest friend in Ithaca, Beth, were consistently by her side at Hospicare.

Gillie grew up in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, completed college at U of W in English, Speech and Language Arts, and taught high school English and Theater. Work with the Girl Scouts played a formative role in Gillie’s early life. In fact, she chose the name Gillie while a Girl Scout, the name a reference from the Old Testament “There is a balm in Gilead to make the wounded whole.” She worked at Rochester School for the Deaf. This experience and the deaf world remained very deeply part of her. Eventually she made her way to massage school in NYC and came, lucky for so many of us, to Ithaca, where she spent the last 35 years. Her massage practice in Ithaca, Crane Hill Massage, was Gillie in her fullest expression. She worked for many years at Hands on PT under the tutelage of her good friend Beth Paris, where she also had her own Crane Hill Massage business. Gentle and deeply perceptive of her patients, she healed with love, touch and centrally laughter, which wafted from her treatment room most of the time.

For 25 years she and Carolyn built a life together, including a larger world of animals, especially dogs and cats. For some of those years she worked a second job at Carolyn’s veterinary clinic, Briar Patch. During that time she attended many home euthanasias, mainly to comfort the pet’s human. Her life included singing with Carolyn in the Out Loud Chorus and later, the Dorothy Cotton Jubilee Singers, homesteading and community building, and social justice work. They were the love of each other’s lives.

We could not conclude without a nod to Gillie’s fashion sense. Glitter, sparkles, rainbows, purple and teal, pinks, streaks, style! She wowed people right to the end. She also wowed us with her rich and soaring soulful voice. Gillie was playful, optimistic, deeply hopeful for humanity, one hundred percent giving. In losing her, we now must work at embodying these qualities within ourselves. That would make her happy!

Gillie is survived by her spouse, Carolyn, Jane and John (sister and brother-in-law), Julie and Adam (niece and husband), Ollie (great nephew), Russel and family (nephew), and Gracie, Caleigh, and Horatio (beloved pets). She was predeceased by her brother, Dennis, and her beloved, remarkable dogs Zuza and Lukas, and many cats.

Arrangements for a memorial this fall are pending. Check later with www.lansingfuneralhome.com for details. In lieu of flowers please consider a contribution to the Dorothy Cotton Jubilee Singers.