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Alice Gail Hayden

On Sept. 16, Alice stepped out of her body and onto the path to see what was next. Alice Gail Hayden was born in Hartford on Jan. 20, 1937, to Frances Harvey and Haskell Hayden. She was the younger sister of veterinarian Harvey Hayden, still practicing in Sharon, and cousin to Faith Fisler of the Washington, D.C. area.

Alice loved telling family stories around the dinner table and had an amazing memory, able to list off her grandparents going back more than ten generations. She prized her Hayden genealogy book, tracing Hayden’s back to not only their arrival in Massachusetts in 1630 but their lineage in England before that. She was a descendant of William Hayden of the Pequot War, founder of Hayden Station, Connecticut, who was, in turn, a descendant of the order of the knights who settled Heydon in Norfolk, also known as Stinton, England.

She was a graduate of Suffield High (1954) and UConn (1959), where she received her accounting degree. She worked for Connecticut General, and after marrying Arthur Carter of Guilford, she served as a civilian contractor (1961). In the late ’60s, they opened an attorney’s office together on Whitfield Street in Guilford. After their divorce, she completed her C.P.A. exams and was a self-employed accountant, primarily handling personal and estate taxes as well as payroll. She lived in Madison for thirteen years with her partner, Donald Reddick (predeceased). She was a wonderful watercolorist and member of the “Friday Night Painters” for many decades, a group started under Dan Rice.

Alice is survived by her sons, Richard, Daniel (wife Sue), and Robert Carter, as well as her grandchildren, Diana (28), Hayden (23), Marly (21), and Benjamin Levi (7).

Within the last few years, she was diagnosed with breast cancer for the third time in her life and dealt with further health complications. She passed away while in home hospice under the loving care of her family and nurses. Even through her illness, she maintained her quality of kindness and great sense of humor. She is dearly missed already.

A memorial service with the family will be held from 1 to 3 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 28, at Hawley Lincoln Memorial, 1315 Boston Post Road, Guilford. It was Alice’s request that those attending do not wear black; she wished for a celebration of her life, not a mourning of her passing.