BESSIE B. FAWCETT

FAWCETT--Bessie Bray, 75, died on March 29 of cancer in Tucson, AZ. A retired New York schoolteacher, she lived in Tucson and Manhattan. She was born to Frank and Elsie Bray in Pierce, CO, and grew up on the family farm in Greeley, attending Colorado State College, now the University of Northern Colorado, there. After receiving her degree in education in 1960, she taught for three years in West Germany for the United States Army before working in the Washington office of Senator Gordon Allott of Colorado. She resumed her career in education, teaching in New York State and New York City, her last assignment 23 years at Louis D. Brandeis High School on the West Side of Manhattan, where she taught English and business education, including basic computer use. The beloved wife of the late Jackson Fawcett, she moved with him to Tucson in 1991 and remained there after his death in 1998, though she also maintained a New York apartment. She will be remembered for her passion for ballroom dancing; for years she and her husband would frequent dancehalls like Equus and other New York nightspots. She is survived by her step-daughters, Susan Fawcett Sosin and Cynthia Fawcett; her step-grandchildren, Clifford Sosin, Tyler Sosin and Clarissa Sosin; and her sisters, Katherine Stone, Ruby Johnson, Wilma Bolden, Doris Rowland, Barbara Burrough, Helen Gouge, Joyce Ingersoll and Carol Harding. Donations may be made to a hospice of your choice.