Obituaries
Obit Sandy Young 2-22-16

Sandford Young, State Golf Association President, a Wee Burn Club Director

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Sanford Procter Young died on Jan. 28, 2016 in Hendersonville, N.C. A former Darien resident, he was active in state and national golf associations. Sandy, as he was best known, was pre-deceased in 1980 by his first wife, Georgia Childs Young, his college sweetheart at Middlebury. Sandy was born in Boston, the son of Leroy Merrill Young and Evelyn Procter Young. He graduated from Governor Dummer Academy in South Byfield, Mass. and Middlebury College in Middlebury, Vt. and did graduate work at Harvard College.

Obituaries
Joseph Sexton obit thumbnail 2-19-16

Joseph Sexton, 90, Oil Company Executive, Member of Darien Clubs

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Joseph R. Sexton of Stamford passed away on Feb. 15 at the age of 90. He was a member of Darien Senior Men’s Association, the Darien Cotillion and Woodway Country Club. He was preceded in death by his parents, Elizabeth and Romeo Sexton, his sister, Eileen, his brother Jim, and his first wife, Barbara MacLea. Joe was born on March 1, 1925 in Litchfield, Minn.

Obituaries
obit Laurel Richards Kane 2-18-16

Laurel Richards Kane, 69, Former Darien Resident Opened Route 66 Welcome Center

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Along a once-thriving stretch of Route 66 in Afton, Oklahoma, is a vintage service station where visitors from around the world would find, and later seek out, a welcome and a smile from Laurel Kane. The modest ’30s-era building was purchased by Laurel and her then-husband, David Kane, in 1998. In 2001, Laurel and David reopened Afton Station as a welcome center for tourists, including a museum displaying Laurel’s Route 66 memorabilia and David’s collection of restored, vintage Packard automobiles. Afton Station quickly became a mainstay on Route 66 and is featured in most guidebooks that highlight Route 66’s top attractions. Laurel, a resident of Tulsa, passed away at the age of 69, on Jan.

Obituaries
Leo Van Munching obit folo 2-15-16

Media Coverage Highlights Van Munching’s Pivoting to Keep Brands Dominant

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Leo Van Munching Jr. of Darien, who recently passed away,  pushed his family’s already successful beer-importing company into national prominence from the 1970s to the 1990s, with marketing and ads that responded to new challenges and opportunities, according to Tuesday’s New York Times. He died at home on Sunday, at the age of 89 from heart failure, the Times reported in an obituary that added several details about his career. By the mid-1970s, he was running day-to-day operations of Van Munching and Company, which his father, Leo van Munching Sr. (who preferred a lower-case “v” in his name), had founded in 1946 as the sole importer of Heineken products. The company maintained its dominance as the importer of the largest foreign beer in the country through successful advertising and marketing campaigns, including radio ads starting in the 1970s that would end with the familiar “Imported by Van Munching and Company, New York, New York.” Television ads were introduced in the ’70s, focusing on the brand’s distinctive green bottle and the tag line, “America’s No.

Obituaries
Snow obit 2-15-16

Eleanor Snow, 81, Teacher, Mother of Five, Former Darien Resident

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Eleanor C. Snow of Brewster, Mass., and a Darien High School graduate, died peacefully on Feb. 2. She was 81 years old. Born on April 3, 1934 in Bronxville, NY, after she graduated from high school in Darien, Ellie went on to Central Connecticut State University, where she received her bachelor’s degree, then the State University of New York at New Paltz, where she earned her masters degree. Both degrees were in elementary education.

Obituaries
Leo Van Munching Jr.

Leo Van Munching Jr., 89, Beer Importer, Philanthropist

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Leo Van Munching, Jr. of Darien, who guided Heineken’s decades-long dominance in the U.S. imported beer market, died February 14 after a long illness.  He was 89. Born in 1926 in Rotterdam, Netherlands, Leo and his family immigrated to the United States after the repeal of Prohibition in 1933.  His late father, Leo Sr., came as a representative of the Heineken brewery and eventually established the independent Van Munching & Company as the sole U.S. importer of Heineken brands. Leo served as a ‘Seabee’ in the 35th Special Naval Construction Battalion on Oahu, Hawaii from 1944 to 1946.

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Marion Hoffman, 87, Garden Club of Darien President, Former Darienite

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Marion Morse Hoffman, 87, passed on peacefully on Jan. 28 in her Manchester, Vt. home in the company of her husband of 64 years, Alexander Carr Hoffman, and her children Susan Duane Hoffman and Peter Morse Hoffman. She is also survived by her three grandchildren, Alexander Rhys Butterfield and Luke Morse Butterfield, and Serena Skye Hoffman. She was a person of exceptional kindness and compassion, traits you could see in her lovely smile and eyes.

Obituaries
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George Brookner, 79, Active in Darien Senior Men’s Club

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Family, friends, and community lost a great man on Jan. 28. George Michael Brookner, 79, of Norwalk died peacefully surrounded by his family at Norwalk Hospital. 

George was a 1954 graduate of Pittsfield High School in Pittsfield, MA, he graduated from Syracuse University in 1958, later receiving an MBA from Sacred Heart University. While at Syracuse, he was on the varsity baseball and swim teams. A veteran of the US Air Force, he held a pilot’s license. He worked in the aerospace industry for the Link Division of General Dynamics and for Pitney Bowes.

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Matthew Galbraith, 88, Insurance Executive, Father of Three, Former Darienite

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Matthew Galbraith, a resident of Darien, a former resident of Riverside, and a former 40-year resident of Barrington, RI, passed away on Monday, Jan. 25, 2016 in Darien. Born on Nov. 23, 1927 in New York, N.Y., he was the son of the late Rose Marie Howes Galbraith and Matthew W. Galbraith and was raised in Millburn, N.J.

Matthew graduated from Millburn High School in Millburn, N.J. and received a B.S. degree from Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Penn. He served with the U.S. Army during World War II.

Obituaries
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Olga Bonfoey, 92, Store Clerk, Volunteer, Longtime Darien Resident

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Olga Bonfoey died unexpectedly and peacefully at her home early Tuesday morning, Jan. 26, in Darien at the age of 92. She died in the home in which she resided since 1950. Olga Bonfoey is survived by her children; Michael Bonfoey and his wife Kelley of Lake Junaluska, N.C., Beverly Bonfoey of Darien, and Gail Iannacone and her husband Al of Norwalk; sister Helen Hallas of Greenwich; grandchildren Tekla Bonfoey, David Iannacone, Michael Iannacone, Lauren Kelley Brown; great grandchildren McKenzie and Abigail; special friends Joe and Sarah Licari and family, especially Jillian and Jake who kept her young at heart. Olga is preceded in death by Arthur Bonfoey, her husband of 57 years.

Obituaries
Aussenhofer obit 2-8-16

Elizabeth Aussenhofer, 85, Mother of Eight, Former Darien Resident

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Elizabeth Patricia Aussenhofer, of Sarasota, Fla. and formerly of Darien, passed away on Jan. 16. She was born June 30, 1931 in Norwalk to Patrick and Hannah Murphy and is preceded in death by her brother, James and sisters, Marianne Quinn and Francis Kondub. Elizabeth was a homemaker to her eight daughters, a member of Power Squadron, Twin Mothers Club and Pelican Yacht Club of Fort Pierce, FL.

Obituaries
Obit Lois Peebles 2-8-16

Lois Peebles, 91, Teacher, Mother of Three, Former Darien Resident

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Lois Querze Peebles’ luminous presence was extinguished Feb. 4, 2016 after a wonderful and rich life of 91 years. A proud daughter of Italian immigrants, Lois was a true citizen of New England – born and bred on Cape Cod and educated in the Boston area (Bridgewater Teachers College, Boston University for her Masters). She was a Connecticut resident for many years (the last 22 years in Greenwich, 18 in Stamford prior to that, 12 in Darien even earlier). Imbued with a deep love of music by her adored father, Dolfo, Lois became an aficionado of the arts — classical music, opera, theater and regularly venturing up to Boston for the symphony or heading into New York for performances at the Met or a play on Broadway.