Eleanor Marlin Arnold

1926 - 2018

Eleanor Marlin Williams Arnold passed away Sunday night on February 18, 2018 in Athens. Georgia. She was preceded by her sister, Anne Norman Hill Russell Williams on January 5, 2008 in Colorado Springs. She is survived by her two sons, Jonathan Arnold at the University of Georgia and James Hambleton Arnold in Berwyn, Pennsylvania, her grandchildren of James Hambleton Arnold and of Sandra Arnold, namely Geoffrey, Susy, and Matthew, her daughter-in-law, Barbara Hartman-Arnold, with her two children Sara Gillespie and Anne Hartman. Eleanor Arnold was born in Chase City, Virginia on June 1, 1927 in the home of her grandfather, Norman Williams Senior, to Norman Williams Jr. and Elinore Marlin Williams. She was a descendant of Virginia's colonial governor, Edmund Jennings. Eleanor moved with her parents to Chatham, Virginia at the age of twelve and finished her secondary education at Chatham Hall in 1945 under the Reverend Edmund Lee and sang in the choir at Chatham Presbyterian Church. She then majored in music with Dr. Dellojoio and with Britz Yahoder, Norman Loyd, Gene Williams, Frederick Harte, and Andre Singer at Sarah Lawrence College. She graduated in Music from Sarah Lawrence on June 1, 1949. She continued to study piano with Mr. Bruce Simons at Yale for another 15 years. She worked at WQXR in their music Department on Manhattan after graduation from Sarah Lawrence. She met Christopher John Arnold from Greenwich, Connecticut, a graduate of St. George's School attending Yale, at a Yale Football Game and married him in 1953 in Chatham Presbyterian Church. They honeymooned in Charlestown, RI. Eleanor and John lived initially in Stuyvesant town on Manhattan for five years. They moved to Riverside, Connecticut with their two children, Jonathan and James, and then to Cos Cob, Connecticut in the Greenwich township, where she was active in the Democratic Party and Voter Registration. Eleanor and C. John Arnold were wonderful parents, giving their children a loving environment, a spiritual home in Christ Church, a strong work ethic, and a superb education at Greenwich Country Day School and St. George's School. With their support one child graduated from Yale and the other, from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. In 1992 Eleanor moved to live in Athens near one of her sons till her passing. A graveside service will take place for the immediate family at 11:00 am on March 17, 2018 in Oconee Hill Cemetery. A memorial service celebrating Eleanor's Life will take place at 4:00 pm on March 17 at Covenant Presbyterian Church at 1065 Gaines School Road, Athens, GA followed by a light dinner in the Fellowship Hall. Donations instead of flowers should be made to the Eleanor Arnold Music Memorial Fund at Covenant Presbyterian Church, 1065 Gaines School Road, Athens, GA 30605.