Jennifer Gunn Connelly

Connelly, Jennifer Gunn Jennifer Gunn Connelly, 51, of Westport, Connecticut, passed away in her sleep in the early morning hours of Sunday, April 1st. She never conceded her brave battle with ovarian cancer but when all the treatments of modern medicine had failed to arrest her disease, even her indefatigable spirit was not enough to help her continue the struggle. She was born in Cleveland, Ohio but raised in Woodstock and Hartland 4 Corners, Vermont. In her early years she attended elementary and junior high school in Woodstock, before going on to boarding school at Dana Hall, in Wellesley, MA, Hawaii Preparatory Academy, and The Mountain School in Vershire, Vermont, from which she graduated in 1979. In 1984 she gained her BA from Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts. She later attained a Master's Degree in American Studies from Columbia University in 1987. Jen worked for a number of years in New York City, where her career included positions with Lord & Taylor as a buyer, with Harper's Bazaar as an accessories editor, and with Columbia Grammar and Preparatory School as an admissions officer and second grade teacher. In 1991 she married Mark Connelly, a Georgetown graduate and Cape Cod native, who became a Managing Director and later Head of US Equity Capital Markets at UBS, before becoming Global Head of Equity Capital Markets at Jefferies & Co. in New York City. In 1993 they moved to Westport, CT to start a family. They raised two wonderful boys, Dylan, now 18, and Ian,13. Being their mother was her life's vocation and her greatest joy. She is survived by her loving husband Mark, her two sons, Dylan and Ian, of Westport, CT, her sister Elizabeth Gunn Potter, of Bozeman, MT, and her parents, Carol and Charles Cushman, of Hartland 4 Corners, VT. A celebration of her life will be held at Greenfield Hills Congregational Church, 1045 Old Academy Road, Fairfield, CT, on Saturday, April 14th at 11am. In lieu of flowers she has requested that a donation be made to the Block Island Conservancy in Rhode Island, where her family owns a home and she spent many wonderful summers. Jen further requested that donations be earmarked to support the purchase of the Solviken Property on Block Island. The Block Island Conservancy can be reached on-line at www.biconservancy.org, or at Block Island Conservancy, P.O. Box 84, Block Island, RI 02807 (401-466-3111).


This obituary was originally published in Minuteman (Fairfield, CT).