Violette Clarisse Bennett

Passed away at 93 in Exeter NH July 12, 2005. Born and brought up in Algeria, Mrs. Bennett attended school in Switzerland and Algiers and briefly taught English in a Paris lyce. She attended Ohio Wesleyan and met her husband George on an Atlantic crossing. Accompanied by her husband, she continued to be an inveterate traveler, spending a year going around the world in 1938, walking through the Pyrenees during the Spanish civil war, and spending much time in her beloved Bali. Very involved with the Academy, she worked in the library, and also developed life-long friendships with students, providing lively company and more adventurous fare than the PEA dining facilities, including mushrooms she avidly gathered from the Academy athletic fields and the median strip of the Maine Turnpike. After the death of her husband in 1965, she continued her involvement with PEA, was employed at the Exeter Bookstore and the art gallery and entertaining students, returning Alumni friends and Bennett Fellows. She worked in her unusual garden and designed and built all her own clothes while assisting others of her generation who were not as active as she. Predeceased by her brother Willy Blackmore, she is survived by sister Lorna Barrett, brother Frank Blackmore, son Coburn Bennett, daughter-in-law Mimi Curran, grandchildren Rowan Curran and Scilla Bennett, and many nieces and nephews. A service will be held at Phillips Church, Exeter NH July 27 at 2 pm. Brewitt Funeral Home of Exeter, NH is assisting the family with the arrangements. In lieu of flowers the family suggests a donation to the George Bennett Fellowship, PEA, 20 Main St Exeter NH 03833.