Dawn H. Taff

Dawn Henrietta Taff, 99, of Glastonbury, died peacefully, at home, on November 3, 2018. She is survived by her son Paul and his wife Valerie, her son Richard and his wife Susan, and her granddaughter Stephanie. She was predeceased by her husband, Paul K. Taff, and her sister, Iris Joy Wilson.

She was born in Decatur, Illinois on April 17, 1919, one of two daughters of Claude Odell and Bertha Krause. She graduated from Decatur High School and Millikin University in Decatur. It was at Millikin where she met the love of her life, Paul K. Taff, from nearby Belleville, Illinois. On Valentine’s Day in 1941, Paul proposed to Dawn, and they married five months later on July 13, 1941. That union would last 71 incredible years until Paul’s death in 2013.

Her husband’s career in radio and television would take the family to various states in the Midwest and then east to Connecticut, first settling in Westport and then finally in Glastonbury. Although she was employed in various positions over the years, and volunteered for many others, her family always came first and she even once resigned as an assistant school librarian when she was refused time off to attend an important family event. Nothing made her happier than having her entire family together whether at home or while vacationing in Maine or Nantucket.

She was a multi-talented individual who was a singer in church choirs and community chorales, a Sunday School teacher and superintendent, a director of Christmas pageants, a doll maker, a seamstress, a cake maker and decorator, a composer of rhymes, a master of the fine art of letter and note writing, and a friend of animals who could tame a chipmunk to sit on her lap. She believed in and fostered long-term friendships, staying in touch with individuals she had first met in grade school, high school and college and still exchanged birthday and Christmas cards and telephone calls with them some 80 years later. Even as she approached the century mark, her mind remained as sharp as ever, with a memory that put the rest of the family to shame, and she began each day by wanting to know and discuss what was happening in the nation and the world.

In the words of those who knew her best, as well as those who had just met her, she was amazing, vibrant, caring, remarkable, lovely, adorable, an inspiration, a sweet soul, a real lady, kind-hearted, so cute, always upbeat, a treasure, a dynamo, a fighter, the Energizer Bunny and toughie Taff. She was loved by all and will be sorely and forever missed.

The family wishes to express its sincere appreciation to Dawn’s friends and neighbors, and the compassionate and caring individuals from Your Extended Family and Masonicare Home Health and Hospice, who enabled Dawn to remain in her home and to live her life as she desired, with dignity and independence, in her final months.

Dawn enjoyed a very long, healthy and rewarding life, filled with much love and happiness. May we all be so blessed.

Dawn was buried, alongside her beloved husband Paul, at Green Cemetery, Glastonbury, after a private service. A memorial service will be held on Saturday November 17, 2018, at 11:00 a.m., at The Lutheran Church of St. Mark, 75 Griswold St., Glastonbury, Connecticut. In lieu of flowers, donations in her memory may be made to The Lutheran Church of St. Mark, where she was a member for the last 47 years. The Glastonbury Funeral Home has care of the arrangements.