Isabel Beecher Hooker died unexpectedly on April 11, 2024, four days short of her 99th birthday at Fox Hill in Westwood, MA.
She was born in Hartford, CT in 1925, a direct descendant of Thomas Hooker and Isabella Beecher Hooker. She attended the Oxford School, Chatham Hall, Bennet Junior College and Katherine Gibbs Secretarial School before beginning her working life in Boston at Houghton Mifflin and the Bank of New England. This meant forging her own way after growing up in Hartford.
She was a member of the National Society of the Colonial Dames, and became an avid volunteer in her retirement. Martha’s Vineyard was a treasured part of her life starting at the age of four when she went there for the first time in 1929; the only two years of her life that she missed going to the island were during World War II and Covid. She was a lifelong member of the Edgartown Golf Club and was never known for slow play, even into her 80’s.
Isabel is survived by and will be greatly missed by her younger sister, Mary Hooker Crary of Hartford, CT, her nephew Joseph N. Crary of Prospect Harbor, ME, her niece Margaret Hooker Crary of East Hampton, NY and their spouses Hilly Crary and Peter Milholland. She was predeceased by her great niece, Margot Willis Crary in 2016. She made many new friends later in life at Fox Hill who will miss her at the dinner and bridge tables, and on trips to the Boston Symphony.
A memorial service will be held on Thursday, May 30 at 1:00 p.m. in the chapel of the Wellesley Hills Congregational Church, 207 Washington St., Wellesley, MA. A reception will follow at the Fox Hill retirement community in Westwood, MA. In lieu of flowers contributions may be sent to the Wellesley Congregational Church or the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital.