Stephanie "Stevie" Hillstrom Elliot Cottrell

It is with great sadness that the family shares the loss of Stevie Cottrell several days short of her 84th birthday. Full of life until her last moments, Stevie was by far the most colorful member of the family and will be dearly missed. She leaves behind her daughters, Sharon Elliot Ahern (husband Tom) and Cassie Elliot (of Washington, D.C.), and her stepson John Trowbridge Cottrell (of Stonington, Ct.) To her unending sorrow she was predeceased by her son Robert Elliot, and two stepsons, Christopher Cottrell and Charles Hammon Cottrell, all within the span of 18 months. She was also predeceased by her second husband, Toby Cottrell.
Born in Chicago of immigrant parents, her father being Swedish and her mother Hungarian, Stevie always regretted that they never taught her their native languages. She more than compensated by becoming an incredible student of the English Language, graduating from Wellesley College class of 1958 on close to a full academic scholarship. Stevie spent most of her childhood outside of Los Angeles in what were then primarily orange groves. An avid rider, she never forgot her first horse, a Morgan named Baby, always insisting that a Morgan is the only horse worth riding. She vividly recalled the California home front during WWII: the nightly blackouts, food shortages, syphoning gas from out-of-town cars (yes, totally immoral, illegal nor could she apparently have cared less), and painting black lines on the back of her mother's legs to simulate panty hose. She would recount with horror the day that suddenly all of her Japanese classmates vanished from school. She railed against the social injustice of internment camps for her Japanese-American friends late into life, and the event shaped her politics as a died in the wool liberal.
After graduating from Wellesley College in Boston, she married A. John Elliot, working in a dental office to generate income as he made his way through medical school and medical residences. It was Stevie's opinion that having helped him study and prepare for numerous accreditations, she herself had earned the equivalency of a Medical Degree. As a result, she often dispensed with unsolicited but disturbingly accurate medical diagnoses. Stevie's second marriage was to Toby Cottrell and the family relocated from Westerly to Madison Ct. so that Toby could work at Yale University. At this point, Stevie delved into her own unique version of a career woman. She worked as a copywriter for Macys-Malleys in New Haven, managed a Turkish Rug store specializing in Kilims and high end oriental carpets, designed hat pins, wrote mystery novels, worked for the Gould Agency in Madison selling real estate and managed a small jazz band called the Advocats. Given Toby's job with Yale, the couple traveled frequently, co-hosting Yale Alumnae trips to exotic locations all over the world. Her favorite birthday was her 40th, when she announced to the family that she was flying to London to get a butterfly tattoo in honor of her gypsy heritage. When Toby's health began to fail at a relatively young age, they sold the family's rambling farm house and moved to Legend Hill Condominiums at the old Silly Putty Mansion site in North Madison. When Toby died prematurely not too long following, Stevie delved into a rich social life with "The Ladies of Legend." On any given day the crew convened for Mah Jongg, Bridge, Book Club or a competition as to who could order in the most bizarre pizza. She threw numerous themed parties and started the tradition of trick or treating for exclusively descent wine or the trick would inevitably ensue. She thoroughly enjoyed bedeviling the Condominium Association, going to war for and prevailing to obtain the "Barney Exception" (the name of her Bassett Hound at the time), so as to allow dog walking on all parts of the grounds, which had been previously strictly forbidden. She continued her travels, often with her best friend Alison Gould, though occasionally she would deem her daughters cool enough to accompany her. Stevie's attitude remained firm: one trip ends and another is immediately planned and booked. This was her attitude as to dogs, as well; she was never without an adopted dog and at any given time was known to have up to three at once. A book in hand, a dog by her side, an exotic trip in the near future, and her world was complete.
The family offers a special thanks to her late in life family at Academy Point in Mystic Connecticut. She thoroughly enjoyed the two years she had there. Anyone who knew Stevie should also know that her final companion, Rosie the Poodle, has been lovingly adopted by one of Rosie's many fans at Academy Point. There will be a jazz brunch in Stevie's honor as soon as Covid allows.