Lola Volpe Hudak

A resident of Shelton for more than 57 years, she resided in Monroe for the last three years of her life.

Lola was born March 16, 1925 in Bridgeport, Connecticut, the second of four daughters to the late Frank and Nina (Francesco and Giavannina) Volpe. She spoke often of a happy childhood growing up with her grandparents and cousins on the East Side. She graduated from Lincoln School in 1938 and from Warren Harding High School in 1942. She worked briefly as a secretary and in retail before attending the Smithcroft School of Beauty Culture, and worked as a stylist at Anthony’s Salon and Paul’s Salon.

In October 1948 she met Edward Charles Hudak at the wedding of mutual friends. They married February 3, 1951, a cold and snowy day, and lived briefly in Grand Rapids, Michigan before returning to Bridgeport to start their family, settling upstairs in her parents’ three-family home. Together they had four daughters; their two oldest enjoyed the daily attention of grandparents and aunts. In 1964 they moved to a home Edward designed and built in the Huntington section of Shelton, where Lola was a dedicated homemaker and mother to her children. Both a skilled seamstress and baker, her most loved creation was a toddler’s dress coat made from Ed’s Navy dress uniform, now worn by two generations. She was the unofficial birthday cake baker for her extended family, and kept us all neatly coiffed as well.

Following Edward’s untimely death in January 1969, she stayed home with her youngest children until they reached their teen years, then returned to work as a popular manicurist at The Hair After in Shelton, where she continued well into her eighties.

Lola was active in the Olde Ripton Garden Club, The Huntington Homemakers, and assisted with Girl Scouts. A lifelong Catholic, she was a Daughter of the Rosary at Holy Rosary Church in Bridgeport, and a communicant at St. Lawrence parish in Shelton. She cherished time spent with babies and very young children, and not just her own children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren- a few minutes interaction with anyone’s baby, even in the grocery check-out line, could make her day. She also had a lifelong admiration for elephants.

She taught her children empathy and hard work, and loved to read. She was an avid collector of recipes, even into her last days. She lived in the house she built with Ed until her 96th year, when she moved to the Monroe home of her daughter Laurie.

She was predeceased by her dear parents, her beloved husband, Edward, her cherished older sister Hilda, her brothers-in-law Vincent Spinelli and Michael Tkacs, and her grandson Adam Haydu. She is survived by her sisters Nina Spinelli and Annette Tkacs, her daughters Lisa (Tom) White, Laurie Haydu, Hilary (Michael) Clayton, and Amy Hudak (Adam Janeczek), her grandchildren Meredith (Mike) Clark, Christina Haydu, Emily (Matt) Clayton-Wood, Audrey Clayton, and Adeline Clayton (Tom Schafer), and great grandchildren Victoria and Mia Haydu, James and Thomas Clark, and Theo Clayton-Wood, as well the as nieces, nephews, and grand nieces and nephews for whom she enjoyed her role as ‘Auntie Lo’.

In lieu of flowers, please consider a gift to The Smile Train or World Wildlife Fund’s Adopt an Elephant program.