Elizabeth (Hanlon) Beebe

SALISBURY — Elizabeth (Hanlon) Beebe, 97, died on March 14, 2016, in Tucson, Ariz.

Betty was born Nov. 8, 1918, in Twin Lakes, the oldest child of Ruth (Cleaveland) and Joseph D. Hanlon.  

She attended the Huntsville School in Falls Village and graduated from Canaan High School in 1935. At St. Joseph College in West Hartford, she earned a bachelor’s degree in child study in 1939 and taught for several years in Hartford.

In 1943, she entered the Boston College School of Social Work while employed by the American Red Cross as a social worker in New Haven and on Long Island. She subsequently earned two master’s degrees at Columbia University, in childhood education and in social work. 

She spent several years as a psychiatric social worker for the Veterans Administration in San Bernardino, Calif., and as program director for the Washington State Agency for the Blind before returning to Connecticut to become a psychiatric social worker at the Norwich State Hospital.   

On Oct. 5, 1957, she married Robert L. Beebe of Niantic, Conn., at St. Patrick’s Church in Falls Village. 

She subsequently accepted a faculty position at the University of Connecticut in West Hartford in the department of social work, where she remained over 20 years. 

Elizabeth and Robert lived in Falls Village during this period, and later moved to Tucson, where she devoted her talents to St. Joseph Hospital as a volunteer.  

During the last years of her life, she thrived in her affection for the Southwestern desert and devoted much of her energy to supporting the National Park system and measures that brought attention to the need for protection of wildlife habitat. She loved traveling, gardening, cooking and driving her Volkswagen. 

She is survived by a sister, Florence (Hanlon) Hayes, of Redding, Conn.; a brother, John F. Hanlon, of North Canaan; and many nieces and nephews. 

She was predeceased by her husband and three of her siblings, Mary Katherine Hanlon, Joseph D. Hanlon Jr. and Margaret Hanlon Flynn.  

A Mass of Christian burial will be held at St. Joseph’s Church in North Canaan on Friday, April 1, followed by internment at St. Mary’s Cemetery in Salisbury.