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Anne Ellis Symmers

SHARON — Anne Ellis Symmers died on May 4, 2010, in Manchester Center, Vt., at the age of 93. She was the mother of Divya Symmers of Sharon.

Born in 1917 in Chicago, Ill., she was the daughter of the late Delia Howard Hazeltine and Ralph Edgar Ellis, and attended the Masters School, Vassar College, and the New England Conservatory of Music.

She was married to the late William Garth Symmers and resided most of her life in Greenwich, Conn.

An avid tennis and platform tennis player, she was ranked ninth nationally in women’s tennis doubles in 1955 and won the National Platform Tennis mixed doubles championships for three consecutive years with her partner, Gordon Gray.

During World War II, she was one of the first members of the American Red Cross to go overseas, serving in England, North Africa, France and Germany.

In Greenwich, she served on numerous boards, including the YWCA, the League of Women Voters and the Commission on Aging, and she was elected to the Town of Greenwich District 1 Board for many years.

Between 1975 and 1982, she worked for Sen. Lowell Weicker, first as an administrative and legislative aide in Washington D.C., then as director of his Bridgeport, Conn., office. She became an executive recruiter for Stamford-based IESC (International Executive Service Corps) in 1983 and was later appointed director of project operations, a position she held until her retirement in 1994.

In addition to her daughter Divya, she is survived by two other daughters, Barbara Bancroft of Muttontown, N.Y., and Susan Bradford of Peru, Vt.; a stepson, Benjamin Symmers, of Mentone, Ala.; a stepdaughter, Ann Reed, of Florida; six grandchildren; six great-grandchildren; five step-grandchildren; and seven step-great-grandchildren.

Memorial donations may be made to Mountain Valley Medical Center, PO Box 310, Londonderry, VT 05148.

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