Renée Laurette Beaulieu

2/9/1950 - 2/14/2024

BORN

2/9/1950

DIED

2/14/2024

Renée Beaulieu Obituary

New London - Renée Laurette Beaulieu, beloved wife, mother, daughter, sister and friend, died Feb. 14, 2024, at Lawrence + Memorial Hospital in New London. Our bright, talented, generous and loving mother, writer, horticulturist and Master Gardener leaves family, friends and coworkers saddened by her sudden and profound illness and the loss of her brilliance.

Friends and family will remember Renée for her kindness, her inquisitive mind, her love for plants and pets and her ability to bring people together. Just like the plants she tended, the unforgettable food she cooked, and the gatherings she threw with her husband Ed Hellenbrecht, everything Renée touched thrived.

Renée married Ed Hellenbrecht in 1979, and the couple had a vibrant and mutually supportive relationship for 44 years. They had a lot in common, including a love of sailing. They bought a boat named "Hellion," sailing with the Thames River Yacht Club, Off Soundings and the Baldwin Yacht Club. Crewed by their friends and children, Hellion won many races from the 1970s to 1990s. One of Hellion's secrets to success was Renée's cooking.

Renée poured her creativity and energy into being a great mom as stepmother to Ed's daughter, Rhona Hellenbrecht Heyl, and mother of Michael and Renée "R2" Hellenbrecht. From Renée, the kids learned to be kind, loving and dedicated.

Professionally, Renée started her career in journalism at Catholic High in Waterbury, where she became editor of the school newspaper. After earning a degree in anthropology from UConn, Renée wrote for the Hartford Courant. When she moved to Mystic, Renée worked as the evening editor for the New London Day. She later wrote a column called "Green and Growing" in the Waterbury Republican-American. She then became the copywriter for White Flower Farm in Litchfield. When Renée and Ed moved to Cincinnati for Ed's work, she designed landscapes and oversaw landscaping crews. She wrote a cooking blog called Chez Renée, and a blog about garden makeovers. Upon Ed's retirement, the couple moved back to their beloved New London. Renée worked on and blogged for the New London Beautification Committee from 2007 to 2012. She worked as produce buyer at Fiddleheads Food Co-op. She loved her coworkers.

Renée was born Feb 9, 1950, in Waterbury. She is survived by her son Michael Hellenbrecht of Ossining, N.Y.; daughter Renée Hellenbrecht; and son-in-law Mark Donohue of Cambridge, Mass.; her brothers and sisters-in-law, Donald and Dorothy Beaulieu of Old Saybrook, and James and Kris Beaulieu of Davis, Calif.; her sisters and brothers-in-law, Irene and Keith Kobryn of DeLand, Fla., and Elaine and Tom Welch of Putnam; and her in-laws, Rich and Mary Ann Hellenbrecht of Queens, N.Y.

The family held a private memorial gathering for close family and friends and will hold a Celebration of Life and burial at sea this summer. In lieu of flowers, donations can be mailed to the New London Beautification Committee, New London Finance Department, 13 Masonic Street, New London, CT 06420, Memo: For the Beautification Committee in memory of Renée Beaulieu.

To plant trees in memory, please visit the Sympathy Store.

Published by The Day on Apr. 20, 2024.

Memories and Condolences
for Renée Beaulieu

4 Entries

Laurie Gorham

May 10, 2024

I was saddened when I learned only recently of Renee´s passing. Condolences to all her family and friends. I met Renee at Fiddleheads 10 years ago when I was a volunteer there. We shared a love of plants and had many great conversations about gardening, politics, and the workings at Fiddleheads. We tried once to get together outside of Fiddleheads but it never happened and once I wasn´t a volunteer anymore, we lost touch. I had no idea she had such an extensive writing career. Although I knew her for only a short time, I was a beneficiary of her kindness and all the other attributes you mentioned, and I am grateful for that. May she rest in peace.

Bob Stepno

April 25, 2024

Renée was my best friend from 1968 into the mid-1970s, years when we had many things in common. She had been editor of her high school newspaper when we met; I was freshman editor of my college newspaper. She started a college literary magazine at UConn Waterbury called "Caterpillar," possibly under the influence of Jefferson Airplane. We went to Woodstock together, but left early; we rang doorbells for Eugene McCarthy together; and we contributed to each other's education.

After a brief summer 1970 fill-in as a part-time correspondent for The Hartford Courant's Willimantic office (where I worked), she returned to college and wrote for The Connecticut Daily Campus, graduating in 1972 as its co-news-editor, and moving on to The New London Day for her first full-time professional job.

I am forever grateful for her helping me through the trauma of my mother's sudden death in 1972. That was a few years before Renée's move to Mystic, and interests that eventually led her away from a newspaper career, while I moved to the Courant's main office as education editor.

We stayed connected by memories, coincidences, and the Internet. Her having been an anthropology major helped lead me to graduate study in that subject in the 1980s, and her interest in boats helped lead me to a job with a boating magazine 10 years later. Living in Virginia now, I wish I had access to a digital archive of the New London Day to revisit some of her 1972-1975 stories, especially when she was on "the environmental beat," writing beautifully about nature and naturalists.

We had been out of touch for 20 years when I was taken by surprise by a wire story that quoted her as a "horticulture expert" -- in 1999 -- advising what I would call "Y2K paranoids" that they were unlikely to become subsistence-farmers in a hurry if all the computers failed at the millenium. I loved her, her writing, her style, patience, grace, and humor, have missed her, and will continue to miss her. My deepest condolences to her children on the unimaginable trauma of losing both her and their father, and to all family and friends who knew them.

Carole Krajeski

April 20, 2024

Renee, my sister and me when Renee and I were freshmen at Waterbury Catholic High. She was my best friend through high school, though we fell out of touch for too many years, finally reconnecting through Facebook several years ago. We bonded over our Beatlemania (I can still hear the Liverpudlian accent she perfected... so perfect that strangers thought she was British.) We had such good times. She will be missed.

Irene Schienberg

April 20, 2024

Even though I did not know Renee Beaulieu, I was drawn to the beginning of her Obituary and how many lives she touched. A life so multifaceted and so well lived. May her Memory Always Be For A Blessing.

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