Martha Davis Soper, 94, of Old Saybrook, a woman with great spirit and heart, passed away at home on Jan. 19 with her family and her dog Daisy by her side. She leaves behind Jack her husband of 46 years. Her long life was full of family, friends, and activities, all done with a twinkle in her eye and a love for laughter. Daughter of Edith Brainard and J.H.K. Davis, she grew up on Woodside Circle in Hartford with one sister (Jill Taylor) and four brothers (Jack, Leverett, Kelso, and Newton), all of whom she outlived.
She attended Oxford School, Dobbs, Smith College, and the University of Hartford. Martha, with her first husband Ged Parsons, raised four daughters in New Britain. In 1970 she married Jack Soper and they lived in Farmington and Old Saybrook. The one constant was her presence in Fenwick, her beloved summer community where she rode horses and learned to swim, sail, and play golf and tennis. She carried on the tradition given her by her father of hiring the ministers at St. Mary’s By-the-Sea for many years.
Never one to sit still, she was a Girl Scout leader, a librarian at Mooreland Hill School, and Old Saybrook’s first archivist, as well as an active member of the Connecticut Valley Garden Club and the Colonial Dames. She valued her bridge and golf friends, scrabble games, crosswords, and her letter writing. Also important in her life were her dogs and the backyard birds that she fed and cared for when injured.
Her wonderful spirit will live on in her children Sallie Boody (Robert), Edie Gengras (Skip), and Marfie Lavendier (Joe); her grandchildren Chip (Ashley), Jonathan (Robyn), Ged (Caitlin), Ethan (Amelia), Cyrus, and Sam; and her great-grandchildren Julia, Emmy, Clayt, Ged, Mary, Katherine, and Ember. She leaves her sister-in-law Elsie Parsons. She was predeceased by her beloved youngest daughter Julia Parsons (Mark) and her brother-in-law and godson Harris Parsons.
The family would like to thank Marta, Vashti, Carol, Middlesex Hospice, and the many caregivers who supported her life during the last four years.
A Memorial Service will be held at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Essex on Jan. 26. In lieu of flowers memorial donations may be made to the Stevenson Archives, Old Saybrook Historical Society, P.O. Box 4, Old Saybrook, CT 06475, or The National Society of the Colonial Dames, 211 Main St., Wethersfield, CT 06109. To share a memory of Martha or send a condolence to her family, please visit www.rwwfh.com. Arrangements by the Robinson, Wright & Weymer Funeral Home in Centerbrook.
