Elizabeth Rockwell Allen

A life long resident of the Hartford area, Elizabeth Rockwell Allen passed away Saturday, April 20, 2019 at Avery Heights. She was 93 years old. Betty Allen was born in Hartford on June 30, 1925, the oldest child of Walter and Miriam (Flenner) Rockwell. Both parents being deaf, they worked at the American School for the Deaf in West Hartford. Betty grew up living on Webster Street in Hartford, and attended Weaver High school. She met John Benjamin Allen in 1941, and they married on April 1, 1944 while John was on leave from the Coast Guard. They had four children, J. Rockwell, Christine, Virginia and Wendy. Along with her father, Betty and John built their first home in 1953 on Terrace Road in West Hartford when there were but a few homes in the area. Betty attended Hartford College for Women obtaining her Associates Degree in in 1945. She later attended Central Connecticut State University, receiving her Bachelors degree in teaching in 1962. She also obtained her Masters at Hartford College in Early Childhood Education. This led to her memorable career as a first grade teacher in the West Hartford Public Schools for 22 years with most of her years at Bugbee Elementary. With her summers free, the family spent weeks camping up and down the east coast. Her offer to take her oldest grand daughter to the beach for a week one summer led to an ongoing 40-year tradition of annual family reunions at Misquamicut RI and North Carolina for the Allen and Jones families. Betty had a thirst for knowledge throughout her life. She was an avid reader and loved to discuss politics with whomever she could engage. She and John loved to go antiquing and collected furniture, early American pressed glass and paperweights. Betty’s was very involved at Immanuel Congregational Church, holding the position of Deacon many times over the years as it gave her the opportunity to meet new people. She and John volunteered weekly at Avery Heights rummage sale run by the Avery Heights auxiliary. She and John were avid Whalers, Red Sox and UConn women’s basketball fans, and attended many games over the years. They kept active with square dancing, belonging to a variety of clubs including the Shooting Stars and the Rip Snorters. With John’s love of jazz music and covered bridges, they attended various jazz festivals including a jazz cruise on the steamship Delta Queen and photographed bridges in New England. They celebrated their golden anniversary with friends and family aboard a steamboat in Essex CT. After they retired in 1986, Betty and John traveled the world and visited every continent. They visited their children who lived out of state as well as touring such places as Antarctica, the Galapagos, Russia, New Zealand, Yugoslavia, China and Africa. They had a map at home that tracked all the places they visited. After John’s death in 2004, Betty still managed to take quite a few trips traveling with her son Rocky and his wife Colleen and snuck in a visit to Easter Island with her grand daughter Cassandra. In her later years, she continued to travel with family, visit her children who lived out of state and attend yearly family reunions at the beach. She liked to play bridge, help shelve books in the Avery library, read the paper, and watch Downton Abby with friends. Betty was preceded in death by her husband John and her brother Gordon Rockwell. Betty is survived by her sister Carolyn Rockwell Jones of West Hartford; her son J. Rockwell (Rocky) and his wife Colleen of Bloomfield, daughter Christine Aronson and her husband David of Woodinville, WA, daughter Virginia (Ginny) and her husband Frank of Glastonbury, and daughter Wendy and her husband Richard of Boulder, CO. She is also survived by nine grandchildren, Cassandra Allen, Amanda Allen, Jessica Aronson McKenzie, Taylor Aronson, T. J. Orscher, Kathryn Orscher Moesgaard, Maryanne Orscher Nield, Tara Hall, David Hall, and eight great grandchildren. A memorial service will take place at Immanuel Congregational Church at 10 Woodlawn Street, Hartford, CT on June 9th at 1:00 p.m. In lieu of flowers, donations in Betty’s memory may be made to Alzheimer’s Association at Alz.org.ct. Burial will be private at the convenience of the family. Taylor and Modeen Funeral Home, West Hartford has care of arrangements. For online condolences, please visit www.tayorandmodeenconnecticut.com.