Martha (Grace) (Lang) (Elbert) Howard, a longtime resident of Guilford, and most recently of North Branford, died on Aug. 29 in North Branford. She was 92 years old.
Martha was married and widowed twice. She married Ralph William Elbert June 12, 1950, and was widowed soon after the arrival of two children. She married Rufus Oliver Howard April 16, 1955, and was widowed again after 52 years and five additional children.
Martha is survived by her seven children, their spouses, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren: Margaret Elbert Paar (Tom) of Arlington Virginia; James Elbert of Wallingford; Amy Howard Chase (Curtis) of Pelham, New York; Thomas Howard (Zhu Zhang) of Westport; Mary Howard of Branford; Martha Howard (Neil Schultes) of Guilford; Emily Howard of Branford; Jessica Paar; Erica Elbert Granucci (Mike); Sean and Audrey Elbert; Kira and Emma Chase; Gwendolyn and Madison Howard; Olivia and Evans Schultes; Ethan, Lucas, and Kendall Granucci; as well as sisters-in-law Lorraine Howard Clark Pickering and Barbara Howard Brock, plus numerous nieces and nephews.
Martha was born on Aug. 23, 1924, in Hoboken, Pennsylvania, renamed Blawnox less than a year later. She was the youngest, and the last surviving of the six children of Walter Lyon and Margaret Byrne Lang.
Though her early years were full of the hard lessons wrought by the Great Depression, her forward-thinking mother was a powerful advocate for education, including college for the girls. Martha learned these lessons well, and, after scoring exceptionally high marks on national standardized tests in spatial relations, worked for the Gulf Oil Company after high school graduation. There she devised a plan for going to college, left home for the University of Texas, Austin, and graduated in 1948 with a BS in physics. After college she went to work at the U.S. Army’s Camp Detrick (1948 to 1955).
After leaving the workforce, Martha ushered her family through Rufus’s medical school years, which started with three children and ended with six. Ever conserving and intuitively mechanical, she would research and repair most anything that stopped working around the house, from electric typewriters to washing machines. Martha also had an artistic side that included amateur theater, gardening, and precision sewing. She had an exceptional eye and memory for color and in later years took up quilting, with great satisfaction in finding precisely tuned colors and prints for her quilt. By power of example, she supported self-sufficiency and encouraged active, perceptive lives in her children.
In later years Martha sold real estate and prepared taxes professionally and as a volunteer, reading the tax code each year, ensuring she was up-to-date. Self-taught, she created and managed a world-class portfolio, staying current with emerging markets and companies such as TESLA, consistently beating the Dow.
Martha’s home in recent years was Evergreen Woods in North Branford. Her family wishes to thank all those who cared for her, especially Drs. John Dunlop, Ronald Miller, and Wahij Zaheer-Kidwai, Barbara Kahn, Amy Platt, Nancy Goldstein, and the cadre of gentle souls at Evergreen Woods and the Health Center, who over the past year offered their special brand of professional care, kindness, and love. The greatest of these gifts has been love.
A Mass of Christian burial was celebrated on Sept. 5 in St. George Church, 33 Whitfield St., Guilford. Burial followed Mass in Alder Brook Cemetery, Boston St., Guilford. Friends called Sept. 4 at the Guilford Funeral Home, 115 Church St., Guilford. In lieu of flowers donations may be made to American Red Cross, Connecticut Chapter, 209 Farmington Ave., Farmington, CT 06032; or St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital, 501 St. Jude Place, Memphis, TN 38105. To share a memory or leave a message of condolence for the family, please visit: www.GuilfordFuneralHome.com.
