SALEM - Beth Ann Cornell, 43, died peacefully at home in Salem, MA on October 28, 2010, six years after being diagnosed with cancer. A lifelong resident of Bristol, CT, she had moved to Salem in July 2009.
Born June 20, 1967 at Bristol Hospital, she was the daughter of Daniel S. Cornell, Jr., and Ann Patricia (Gagnon) Cornell, who predeceased Beth in December 1979. At birth it was discovered that Beth had spina bifida occulta, a neural tube defect, and it was not clear if she would survive her first day. She was transferred to Yale-New Haven Hospital, where she spent the first six months of her life. Discharged in December 1967, doctors told her parents that her life expectancy was sixteen years.
Over the next 43 years Beth made defying expectations her life's work. Though she was a paraplegic and confined to a wheelchair, her cognitive abilities were normal and she attended regular classes at Bristol Public Schools where she left an impression on every teacher and classmate she had. Prior to the advent of specialized handicapped student transport, Officer Michael Werner, a future mayor of Bristol, drove her to Hubbell School each morning in a City police cruiser, and she learned at an early age how to make an entrance.
Despite repeated hospitalizations throughout her life, Beth was a member of Girl Scout Troop 106, setting a troop record for cookie sales in April 1979 with over 80 boxes sold, and was a regular communicant of St. Matthew's Church in Forestville, CT. She also attended the Easter Seals-run Camp Hemlocks in Hebron, CT, spent many summers with her paternal grandparents Daniel S. Cornell, Sr. and Agnes (Slocum) Cornell in Danbury, CT and Thetford, VT, enjoyed trips to see her maternal grandparents Joseph P. Gagnon and Helen (St. Germain) Gagnon in Greenfield, MA, and looked forward to annual birthday trips to her aunt and uncle’s house in Athol, MA.
She graduated from Westwoods School in 1982 and from Bristol Eastern High School in 1986. After her schooling ended, Beth became a self-taught computer expert, founding and running an international Angela Lansbury Fan Club website that had hundreds of members, including Ms. Lansbury’s official biographer, and being selected to contribute episode recaps for a widely-read ‘Guiding Light’ fansite.
Besides her father, her sole caretaker for the last 31 years of her life, Beth is survived by her younger brother, Matthew, his wife, Beth Anne (Cooke), her beloved nieces and nephew, Susannah, 7, Cade, 4, and Dever, 9 months, her aunts Joan Wood, Christine Mastaler, and Betty Gagnon, uncles Richard "Bud" Gagnon and Greg Mastaler, cousins Julie Mastaler Sanders, Peter, Mark, Nancy and John Gagnon and their spouses Troy Sanders, Julie Gagnon, Pam Gagnon, Bob Burch and Trish Colbourn Gagnon, and their 9 children. She was predeceased by her grandparents and a cousin, Lisa Mastaler. Beth also leaves her many Facebook and chat room friends and website collaborators from Australia to Europe whose company and correspondence she enjoyed to her final days.
Beth’s family would like to send special thanks to the doctors, nurses, and staff of the hospitals that cared for and inspired Beth throughout her life, especially those at Yale-New Haven Hospital, Newington Children’s Hospital, Hartford Hospital, Danbury Hospital, The University of Connecticut Health Center and Massachusetts General Hospital.
A Memorial service will be held at St. Matthew’s Church, 120 Church Avenue, Forestville, CT on Saturday November 13, 2010 at 10:00 AM. Relatives and friends are respectfully invited to attend. Interment of ashes at St. Joseph’s Cemetery in Bristol, CT will be private. The Full-Spychalski Funeral Home, 84 Washington Square East, by Salem Common, Salem, is assisting the family with arrangements. Donations in Beth's name may be made to the Spina Bifida Association of Connecticut, PO Box 2545, Hartford, CT 06146-2545, http://www.sbac.org, or to The American Bladder Cancer Society, 399 1/2 Main Street, Suite 2B Dalton, MA 01226-1612, http://www.bladdercancersupport.org. For on-line guestbook, visit www.SalemFuneral.com.