Elizabeth Freeman Little Shippee

SHIPPEE, Elizabeth Freeman Little
Elizabeth Shippee died peacefully at home on July 12, 2016 in her 96th year. Born November 10, 1920, in Central Falls, Rhode Island, she was a 64-year resident of Greenwich who proudly voted in the 2016 Connecticut Primary Election and celebrated the enfranchisement of women that went into effect the year she was born.
Elizabeth's early life was one of adventure with many of her school years spent in China where her father Lester Knox Little was Inspector General of the Chinese Maritime Customs Service. She lived in various coastal cities including Amoy (Xiamen), Canton (Guangzhou), and Shanghai, graduating from the Shanghai American School in 1937. She spent a year at school outside Geneva, Switzerland, and saw first-hand the Nazi build up to the war before entering Wellesley College from which she graduated in 1942 with a degree in Ancient Greek. During her school years, she was an enthusiastic tennis and field hockey player.
Fluent in Mandarin and other dialects, Elizabeth loved China and returned there after World War II with her husband Nathan. Daughter Elizabeth was born in Shanghai in 1946. The family left China in 1948 as the Nationalist government was falling to the Communists.
Elizabeth and her family, now including her sons Robert and Richard, moved from Pawtucket, Rhode Island to Greenwich in 1952. Her son Arthur was born in Greenwich in 1957. Raising four children in Greenwich Public Schools was her mission and her passion – no school assignment went back without a grammar check and proof reading. Her love of languages was lifelong and her ability to complete the London Times Cryptic Crossword was astonishing.
For six decades, Elizabeth was an active member of many civic, church, college and arts organizations. She was, inter alia, a Cub Scout Den Mother, a volunteer for the Greenwich Library and the Bruce Museum, active with the Southern Connecticut Wellesley Club and the American Association of University Women and a faithful alto choir member at Second Congregational and First Presbyterian churches and in the Greenwich Choral Society.
It was chiefly as a board member of the Greenwich Symphony that she made her greatest contribution. She was largely responsible for building the orchestra's subscription base to a level that allowed it to sustain a series of professional performances that continues to this day. If the orchestra's success was her greatest civic achievement, then choral singing was her greatest artistic delight. With the Greenwich Choral Society and as a member of Berkshire Choral International, she sang in dozens of concerts including performances at the Aldeburgh Festival and Canterbury Cathedral in England and at Carnegie Hall.
Elizabeth was an avid gardener – tomatoes were a specialty – and believed there was no lovelier green space on earth than her Greenwich backyard. Her tulip tree, her sycamore, her redwood, ash and dogwood were friends, as were her ten thousand daffodils, Virginia bluebells and wood anemone. To her, home in Greenwich was peace and quiet, serenity and sanctuary.
She is survived by her four children and their spouses, Elizabeth S. Boylan (Robert J. Boylan), Robert W. Shippee (Gayle Beyer), Richard R. Shippee (Deborah Matz) and Arthur B. Shippee (Mary Porterfield), along with five grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. A Celebration of Life will be held at a later date. For information write: ELS.Service.2016@gmail.com. No flowers requested, but friends could contribute, or better, subscribe to the Greenwich Symphony or the Greenwich Choral Society in her memory.