Woodstock, Vt. — Constance Fitz died Monday, Feb. 26, 2017, surrounded by her three children, at Woodstock Terrace.
Connie, the daughter of Rear Admiral Paul Hendren and Bryson Pettit Hendren, was born in Washington, DC. She traveled widely, including a trip through the Panama Canal as a child and several years living in Germany. During World War II, she learned to fly and became a Civilian Air Raid Observer to monitor for enemy planes over Chapel Hill, N.C. She earned a BA in history from the University of North Carolina and later a Master of Library Science from Connecticut State College in New Haven. She was curator of education at the Mint Museum of Art in Charlotte, N.C. She later served as state film librarian for Connecticut until she retired in 1982.
Connie married Dr. Reginald Fitz at the Woodstock Universalist Chapel in May 1982. They lived for many years at Catnip Hill in South Pomfret, then moved into Woodstock after remodeling a mansard roofed house on Linden Hill Road. She was active in the League of Vermont Writers, served as vice president and president, and helped edit Vermont Voices and Vermont Voices II, anthologies of short stories including some which she wrote. For some years, she wrote a gardening column for the Vermont Standard called “Touch the Earth.” She also wrote articles on gardening for the New York Timeson gardening and on thrift store shopping. Connie was active in Pentangle’s efforts to renovate the town theater in Woodstock. She served on the board of the Norman Williams Memorial Library in Woodstock and for several years organized annual book sale fundraisers to benefit the library and to furnish their Mission style reading room. Connie also was a board member of the Lucy Mackenzie Humane Society. In addition to gardening and raising Jack Russell terriers with names inspired by golf, she was a thrift store and yard sale shopper extraordinaire.
Connie had three children from her first marriage, Catherine Nicholson Donnelly of University Park, Md., James S. P. Nicholson of Carencro, La. and Kings Mountain, N.C., and Ann Yelin of Concord, Mass.; a brother, Paul M Hendren of Greensboro, N.C.; and three grandchildren. Reginald Fitz died in May 2013.
A memorial service will be held on Saturday, April 1 at 2 p.m. at the Universalist Chapel in Woodstock.
In lieu of flowers, she would have been pleased by donations to the Lucy Mackenzie Humane Society of Windsor, Vt. or Listen Community Services, Lebanon, N.H.
Arrangements are under the direction of the Cabot Funeral Home in Woodstock. An on line guest book can be found at cabotfh.com.