LIVERMORE – A woman remembered for her energy, determination, love of history and vision to make Washburn-Norlands Living History Center in Livermore a national treasure died Sunday.

Ethel “Billie” Wilson Gammon of Livermore was 92. She died of complications from chronic obstruction pulmonary disease at 11:30 a.m. at home with her family, her son, Michael Gammon said.

She had had pneumonia four times since May, he said.

Her intense love of history went beyond founding Norlands.

She worked to make Maine’s museums and historical societies become more professional and to get the recognition and funding they deserved.

“I think museums and historical societies are much better off because of work of Billie,” said Erik Jorgensen, executive director of Maine Humanities Council. “She really had a great vision for how the story of Maine should be told. The biggest tribute to her was Norlands. That was right out of her head.”

The council recognized her Norlands work with the Constance Carlson Award, given to people who make extraordinary contributions to humanities in Maine.

Gammon was also inducted into the Maine Women’s Hall of Fame in 1997. That award recognizes a woman’s achievements that have a significant statewide impact, significantly improved the lives of women in Maine, and has enduring value for women.

Gammon’s love of the Washburn family, its history and the development of Norlands began in 1954. It was then she started cleaning – at the request of a Washburn descendant – the family library, which was in major disrepair.

In a 2004 interview with the Sun Journal, Gammon said she remembered unlocking the library door and only being able to step inside about three steps. There was a mountain of papers, birds flying around and plaster falling from the ceiling.

She could remember asking herself, “Where am I going to begin? I was standing there hopeless and helpless and I bent over and picked the first thing at my feet.”

It was a pamphlet about the library’s dedication in 1885.

Gammon’s “love and devotion” for the place had her at times sleeping at Norlands to watch over it.

“I kept reading, studying and cleaning and I kept dreaming of what I could do,” Gammon said then.

Gammon, a self-proclaimed lover of people “living or dead,” became an advocate for preservation of the memory of the Washburns, a family that hailed from Livermore and left a mark on the country during the anti-slavery movement.

She wanted to make history come alive.

She wrote and received many grants to keep her dream alive of sharing history and educating youngsters and renovating and preserving the 19th century Washburn mansion, church, library, schoolhouse and other properties.

She was always quick to say that she didn’t do it alone; it was a community effort.

“She was a woman of vision. She not only knew how to organize volunteers but she was not afraid to work herself,” said friend Norma Boothby of Livermore. She volunteered along side of Gammon for years.

“Billie was enthusiastic. She was dynamic. She was creative. She was a visionary. She could inspire enthusiasm in others,” Boothby said. “She could draw volunteers like a magnet. She had that ability. She had a personality that involved you. Before you knew it, you found yourself catching her enthusiasm.”

Jerome Nadelhaft of New York, a retired University of Maine History Department professor in Orono, worked with Gammon on the northern New England humanities annual conference. In 2008, Gammon set up the 15th annual conference in Livermore.

Every year, no matter how old she was, she always had the energy and enthusiasm to set up the conference, he said.

“She was a wonderful, wonderful woman who did so much for Washburn-Norlands center,” said Dorothy Schwartz, retired executive director of the Maine Humanties Council.

“Billie was committed to teaching children and adults about Norlands,” Schwartz said. “She was very single-minded in her determination to make Washburn-Norlands Living History Center an important center for education in the history of that whole part of Maine. She was really sort of a living monument of how a single person in a community can make a real difference.”

A funeral service for her is planned for is Thursday, Jan. 15, at the North Livermore Baptist Church.

Visiting hours are 2 to 8 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 14, at Finley’s Funeral Home in Livermore Falls