Martha Jane (Hunt) Stevens, known to her friends as MJ, of
Burlington, Vt., passed away peacefully on October 19, 2023, at the
Residence at Quarry Hill. She was 99 years old and in good health
mentally and physically until her death.
Born on June 13,
1924, in Buffalo, N.Y., she was the older daughter of Stanley F. and
Jessie (Balfour) Hunt of Palmer, Mass. When Martha was six years old,
her family moved to Fayetteville, N.Y.,, a small village outside
Syracuse, where she graduated from high school, then graduated from
Pembroke College in 1945 and the women’s college at Brown
University.
After graduating from Brown, she worked for
the New England Telephone Company in Hartford, Conn., and Boston,
Mass., until 1950, when she married Donald W. Stevens, a Yale
graduate, who was working in Brockton, Mass. for Liberty Mutual
Insurance. His career in casualty insurance took them to California,
Ohio, New York and, finally, after retirement, to Burlington, Vt., to
be near their two sons, Jonathan H. Stevens and Andrew B. Stevens.
She and Don both loved music and travel and enjoyed many trips in
their 54 years together. Don predeceased her in 2004.
MJ
loved to play golf and until recent years was an active member of the
Burlington Country Club. She was a member of the Burlington chapter
of PLO, a national philanthropic sorority, and a member of the
College Street Congregational Church in Burlington.
In
addition to her two sons, she is survived by her sister, Anne Hunt
Brock, of Bloomfield, Conn.; a nephew, Charles F. Brock; a niece,
Lelia B. Alexander; and her childhood friend Jean Frederick of Sierra
Madre, Calif.
A memorial service will be held on Friday,
November 3, 11 a.m, at the College Street Congregational Church, 265
College St., Burlington.
Arrangements are in the care of
Corbin & Palmer Funeral Home.
This article appears in Oct 25-31, 2023.