Virginia Towns Abbott

Virginia Towns Abbott, born January 2, 1924, died after a long illness on Monday, May 14, 2007 at the Connecticut Hospice. The daughter of the late Allan F. Towns and Hilda Robbins Towns, she was born in Manchester, New Hampshire. She attended the University of New Hampshire, transferring after her freshman year to Bates College, which she loved, and from which she graduated with a major in Religion. She attended Andover Newton Theological Seminary, where she met her husband, John W. Abbott, who was also a student there, preparing for the ministry. They were married on March 15, 1946. She received a Master of Social Work degree from the University of Connecticut School of Social Work. She worked as an adoption worker at the Children's Center in Hamden, Connecticut for 16 years. She then worked for the State of Connecticut as a psychiatric social worker and supervisor for 16 years at Undercliff Mental Health Center in Meriden and at Connecticut Valley Hospital in Middletown. After retiring from the State, she returned to the Children's Center for several years where she helped adopted children connect with their birth parents. She also volunteered at Sage Services in New Haven, helping callers get information about the services available for the elderly in the area. She was a member of the National Association of Social Workers. She lived in Hamden, Connecticut for over 50 years. Her two children, Timothy, a skilled auto mechanic, and his partner Diane Steinle, of Fort Collins, Colorado and Melanie, a law professor at Quinnipiac University School of Law, of Branford, Connecticut, survive her, as does her husband of 61 years, The Rev. John Abbott. She is also survived by her cousin, Margaret Milnes Bennett of Londonderry, New Hampshire, and by her friends who helped her throughout her illness, including Minerva Garcia, Delores Curet, Morine Ratliff and Lena Francis. She loved animals and took great pride in her grand-pets, including Tim and Diane's dog Meatball and cat Bosley and Melanie's dogs Zachary and Ziesse and cat Luca. She was predeceased by the two great-aunts who raised her from childhood, Ella Hesleton and Josephine W. Milnes, by a sister, Nancy Towns, who died as a child, and by her other sister, Priscilla Siderofagos, all of Manchester, New Hampshire, by her brother Allan Towns, of Louisiana, and by her two cousins, The Rev. Russell Milnes, of Canaan, Connecticut, and Ruth M. Hardy, of Plattsburgh, New York. A Service of Memory, Reminiscence and Thanksgiving for the Life of Virginia T. Abbott will be held at BEECHER & BENNETT, 2300 Whitney Avenue, Hamden, on Saturday, May 19, 2007 at 3:00 pm. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the Connecticut Food Bank, P.O. Box 8686, New Haven, CT 06531, the Connecticut Hospice, 100 Double Beach Road, Branford, CT 06405, and Habitat for Humanity, 37 Union Street, New Haven, CT 06511.