Elsie H. Doolittle

Elsie H. Doolittle, 95, of Glastonbury, CT, loving wife of William W. Doolittle, Jr. since 1940, passed away peacefully on December 23, 2011 at Hartford Hospital after a struggle to recover from injuries sustained in a fall on December 6. Elsie was born on October 18, 1916 in Altamont, NY to John L. Harrington and Harriet M. Kenyon, later residing in Schoharie, NY. She graduated from Schoharie High School in 1934, and then from Cornell University in Ithaca, NY in 1938, where she majored in English and minored in Library Science. In 1970 she earned the Masters Degree in Library Science from Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT. Elsie taught high school English at Downsville, NY and then Greenport, NY before marrying William in July 1940, and moving to Glastonbury to reside for the rest of her life in the house they built on Ridgewood Road. She worked at the Wells Turner Library in Glastonbury in the early 1940s and the Middletown Public Library in the mid-1950s. During the early 1960s Elsie worked as a partner at North Realty in Glastonbury. She returned to her profession as Librarian for Hartford High School in 1966 and then for Glastonbury High School in 1968, continuing there until retirement in 1982. In retirement, Elsie was active as a Docent for the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford for a quarter century, being awarded emeritus status in 2009. She also was an active volunteer for the Child and Family Services thrift shop in Glastonbury. Elsie enjoyed her dogs, skiing and day sailing with her family, and continued playing tennis well into her eighties. For the past decade she was Co-President with her husband of the Cornell alumni class of 1938. In addition to her husband William, Elsie is survived and will be dearly missed by son William W. Doolittle III and his wife Barbara Spence Doolittle of Ann Arbor, MI, daughter Harriet D. Burrell and her husband George W. Burrell of Peru, NY, son John H. Doolittle and his wife Marie McKew Doolittle of Mountain View, CA, and daughter Diana M. S. Doolittle and her husband Harry M. Horn of Salem, CT, and eight grandchildren, Krista A. Rock, Victoria Zinser Duley, Abigail L. O’Haver, Anne L. Marques, Emilie J. Doolittle, Jane M. Doolittle, John S. Doolittle, Amelia S. Horn and seven great grandchildren. She is predeceased by her brother Robert E. Harrington. A private memorial is planned for the family. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations in her memory may be made to the Wadsworth Atheneum, http://www.thewadsworth.org/donate/. To leave an online tribute, please visit www.glastonburyfuneral.com.