NORWALK, CONN Jean Fulton Benedict died peacefully on Wednesday, January 05, 2011 at her home in Norwalk, Connecticut, at age 93. Born in Chicago on February 14, 1917, Jean was the daughter of Albert and Belle Fulton. She enjoyed a relatively privileged upbringing, yet grew up to possess extraordinary reserves of will power and self discipline which stayed with her throughout her life. To all who knew her she was appreciated for her generous nature, her aversion to discord, her intellectual engagement, and an enduring capacity for personal growth. She was a voracious reader of literary fiction, biography and murder mysteries, with a formidable memory for stories and characters. She earned her BA in 1938 from Rockford College, in Rockford, Illinois, where she had studied history and political science. The following year, while in Boston taking business courses, she met and soon fell in love with the handsome Harvard Law student, Raymond Benedict. Jean and Ray married on December 21, 1940, and remained deeply in love and happily devoted to one another until Ray's passing in 1995. Wife, mother of three children, and a great cook, Jean also faithfully volunteered her time throughout her married life to a variety of local institutions, including The Smith House Care Center in Stamford, and the Norwalk Hospital Thrift Shop in Norwalk. Painfully predeceased by her beloved daughter Margaret, she is survived by her loving sons, Henry and Charles, her grandson, Brian Benedict, and her nephews, Peter, Mark and Todd Reed, sons of her dear sister Margaret, who also predeceased her. Friends and family will be notified of the date and time for a Memorial Mass to be held within the coming months at Saint Matthew's Episcopal Church, 36 New Canaan Road, Wilton, Conn. Donations in her memory may be made to charities of the donor's choosing. Norwalk's Hoyt-Cognetta Funeral Home & Crematory, 5 East Wall Street is honored to assist the Benedict family with the arrangements.
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