Anne Scheibner

1917 - 2016

Waterford - Anne (Paulsen) Scheibner, 98, died at her residence, New London Rehab and Care of Waterford, on the night of Tuesdy, April 5, 2016.

Over the last three years, her increasing dementia dimmed her conversational capacities, but not her manners or style, which remained with her to the end. Born in Albert Lea, Minn., on Nov. 24, 1917, she was the daughter of Anna Pray TenBroeck Paulsen and the Rev. Mark Paulsen.

Despite suffering from polio as a child, she finished high school in Sault Sainte Marie, Mich., and attended Wellesley College. She graduated with a degree in political science in 1939. She worked on the 1939 Roosevelt campaign, was director of the Massachusetts Civil Liberties Union, and later worked for the United Nations Association. Following her marriage to Henry Scheibner in 1946, she moved from Boston to Stonington. Together they helped start a forum series which brought, for example, Roger Baldwin, founder of the American Civil Liberties Union, to debate a then little known California congressman, Richard M. Nixon, on whether the Communist Party should be outlawed in the United States.

Her many volunteer activities included chairing the Stonington Girl Scouts, serving on the boards of the Stonington Visiting Nurse Association, the Stonington Library and the Tri-Centennial Scholarship Committee, as well as being a docent for the Lyman Allen Museum and the president of the Southeastern Connecticut Wellesley Club. In the 1970s, she served eight years as the only woman on the newly created Stonington Police Commission, including two years as chairman. During the 1950s and 60s, she also served as one of the chairmen of the group that fought successfully for a new high school in Stonington.

Her lifelong passion for reading expressed itself in many ways, including membership in several book clubs. She organized the first gathering of regional book clubs, which still meets annually in Mystic to compare reading lists. In the 1960s, she served as librarian for The Williams School in New London. Her joy in art and creating doll houses is exemplified in the Horseshoe Art Gallery on exhibition at the Stonington Free Library.

She lived for more than 40 years in Stonington, six years in Mystic, and 14 years in the assisted living facility, Chester Village West in Chester. For the last two years, she has been a resident of New London Rehab and Care of Waterford. Her daughters thank the staff at both CVW and New London Rehab and Care for their extraordinary care and support for their mother.

She was predeceased by her husband, Henry Scheibner in 2007; and by her younger sister, Dorothy Paulsen in 2012.

She is survived by her daughters, Anne Pray Scheibner of New London and Catharine Scheibner and her spouse, Carrie Haag, of Santa Fe, New Mexico; two grandchildren, Nathaniel Jarrett and his wife, Zuleika Fareaux Jarrett, of Charlotte, N.C. and Sarah Jarrett of New London; and three great-grandchildren, Alexander Emmett Jarrett, Emanuel Francis Jarrett and Theodore Esteban Jarrett of Charlotte, N.C.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in her memory to any scholarship or reading-related charity of the donor's choice.

A luncheon reception will be held from 12:30 to 2 p.m. Saturday, April 16, at First Congregational Church, 2 Ferry Road, Old Lyme, followed at 2:30 p.m. by a funeral service at St. Ann's Episcopal Church, 82 Shore Road, Old Lyme.

Byles Memorial Home, New London, is assisting with arrangements.

Please visit www.byles.com for directions, to sign her guest book or to share a memory.