Carolyn V. (Hayward) Beers

Carolyn Viola (Hayward) Beers, of South Ashford, CT, passed away with family at her side on Sunday morning, February 7, 2021, after a lengthy illness. She was born at home in Wesley, Maine, on July 5, 1929, the daughter of the late Harry Philip Hayward and Marcia (Day) Hayward. Her New England know-how, from starting a fire in the wood stove to sewing on a Singer treadle machine, derived from her childhood in Downeast Maine. From her reflections on her father, we know that she enjoyed keeping him company in the early morning, bundled in blankets, while he lit the stove and got the house warm before everyone else got up for the day. Her love of cooking owes to her mother whose baked beans and homemade donuts were legendary. She watched, she learned. These lessons lasted her a lifetime.

At age twelve, she moved with her family to Connecticut, first living in Danielson and then Glastonbury, near her father's place of employment, Pratt and Whitney. She was an industrious, capable worker and she derived considerable pleasure in being able to pay for her own clothing and other expenses from the money she earned as a teenager, babysitting in her neighborhood of Wells Village and harvesting shade tobacco at the tobacco farms that were part of Glastonbury's landscape. She graduated from Glastonbury High School in 1946 and, in recognition of her excellence in bookkeeping, she was recommended by the principal, the late Albert Endee, for a position at Hartford National Bank. She married her husband of sixty-four years, the late Reginald Pardey Beers, Jr., in 1948, and with him raised a family and shared in the work of a family dairy farm in Ashford for almost fifty years. She was a homemaker in the richest sense of that word, and her artistry and abilities showed themselves in her cooking, gardening, knitting, and sewing. She not only excelled in the home arts, but she enjoyed them to the full. She had many outside interests including watching birds, locating the stars and constellations, and reading biographies of significant figures throughout history. She attended church from an early age, and she was a dedicated member of the Christian Fellowship of Windsor for over thirty years.

In addition to her husband, Mrs. Beers was predeceased by her son, Charles Thomas Beers, her sisters Pauline Marguerite Hayward, Sybil Irene Reynolds, and Geraldine Constance Reynolds, and her brothers Harry Philip Hayward, Jr., William Corrin Hayward, Allen Sewell Hayward, and Daniel Rollins Hayward. She leaves behind her son and daughter-in-law, Philip and Florence Beers; daughter, Donna Beers; sons, Kenneth Beers and Reginald P. Beers, III; brother, Donald Gray Hayward; five grandchildren, Jamie and fiancé Steve Campbell, Timothy Beers and wife Michele, Sarah and husband Gary Haynes, Kristin and husband Nathan Bass, Cynthia and fiancé Royal Underwood; ten great-grandchildren, Alex, Zachary, Matthew, Olivia, Lily, Jake, Juliana, Lukas, Isaiah, and Gunnar; and several nieces and nephews, all treasured.

The family expresses heartfelt thanks to the remarkable staff at Mansfield Center Nursing and Rehabilitation whose care and compassion for our mother and kindness to her family will always be remembered. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in her name to Mansfield Center Nursing and Rehabilitation, 100 Warren Circle, Storrs, CT 06268.

A private funeral service will be officiated by her husband's cousin, Calvin L. Keeler, Sr., Minister of Visitation of the Ebenezer United Methodist Church in Newark, Delaware, with interment following at the Westford Hill Cemetery in Ashford, Connecticut. For an online guestbook, please visit www.potterfuneralhome.com.

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