Stella R. Conners, 97, passed away at Bartlett Regional Hospital in Juneau, AK on 11 June 2020 with her daughters Patricia and Karen by her side. She had suffered a hemorrhagic stroke the day before.
Stella was born 27 September 1922 in Beacon, NY to Genoveffa and Giuseppe Fabrizio. She was the fifth of the eleven children that lived to adulthood. She married Charles H. Conners of Newburgh, NY on 20 January 1945.
Together in Newburgh they raised four children. She was a wonderful wife, mother, aunt and friend. She was always involved with her children’s activities and provided a loving, safe and nurturing place to raise their children. There were always wonderful Italian meals, instruction on how to make them, and enough made for those last minute additions to the dinner table.
She was raised in a large family filled with love, food, music, and hard work. Even being raised during the Great Depression, she proved to be adventuresome and inquisitive from a young age. She loved to remember the times as a small girl helping her Dad in the garden. She told stories of her large family gatherings with all the great food that was from the hard work of their own hands. She spoke of her frequent hikes, often alone, up Mt. Beacon in her home town. She dreamed of travel, especially by airplane and wanted to be a pilot. She proved adept at sewing.
Over the years from the Great Depression through and after WW II, she held many jobs where she was able to use that trade. She sewed for her large family, then flotation vests and pontoons during the war, then for her own family (including PJ’s, prom dresses, and Halloween costumes) and pocketbooks at her brother’s factory. She was a seamstress and tailor extraordinaire. After her husband passed in 1990 she began summering in Juneau, AK. She maintained her school year job as a Teacher Aide for many years. She so enjoyed being around children all her life and picked up many names. She was lovingly called Mrs. Conners, Grandma, Grandma Honey or just Honey. During those years she traveled quite a bit with her daughters (Patricia and Karen) and their families. She was game for anything; hiking mountains, walking beaches, road trips and camping adventures into the Yukon with 4H kids and their horses, eagle gatherings, attending plays and musical performances, lectures at the university, high school football games to cheer on the Crimson Bears, being with ravens, and flying to daughter’s meetings or to visit family. She truly enjoyed helicopter flights, especially those that landed on, and allowed her to walk on, a glacier. She enjoyed quilting with a group that distributed quilts to the less fortunate. She was an avid reader and perpetually had a crossword puzzle going. Because she was so involved, interested and giving she acquired many friends and “family by choice” through “ex’s” and friends of her children. She moved full time to Juneau in 2015. She may have slowed down in her last few years but she lived with grace and dignity till the end.
She is preceded in death by: her husband Charles H. Conners, Sr., nine of her siblings, son-in-law Alfred Fowler Sr., and her great-grandson Nicholas C. Tragis.
She is survived by: Three siblings- Delores Stack, Rudolph Fabrizio and Rose Marie Lawson. Her children: Charles H. Conners, Jr. (Lonnie Astalos), Christene H. Fowler, Patricia G. Conners (Tim Allen) and Karen C. McGee (Ken). Her Grandchildren: Scott Conners (Mindie Loebach), Michelle Conners (Steve Johnson), Nicole Tragis (Sven Noreen), Brianna Koch (Matt), Chasina McGee (Justin Rankin), Raymond Garvey (Lahoma), Christene Carney (Kevin), Christopher Fowler (Jessica), Alfred Fowler Jr., and Brian Fowler. Great Grandchildren: Mia Conners, Joshua and Jair Sholar, Jordan and Jayden Garvey, Chatham and Quinn Rankin, Oliver Koch, Kevin Jr., Devin, Michael and Sean Carney. All the nieces and nephews and friends, too many to name. Until we meet again, we promise to keep the children safe and warm and the ravens fed. Rest In Peace and Love Stella, our Queen of the Stars, you will be very missed.
Due to the Covid-19 travel restrictions, services are as follows: There will be a graveside service for immediate family, on 22 August 2020 at Calvary Cemetery in New Windsor, NY at 10:30 a.m. Flowers may be sent (by the day before) to Brooks Funeral Home, 481 Gidney Avenue, Newburgh, NY 12550.