This tribute was presented at the annual fundraising dinner July 14, 2016 for the Danbury Democratic Town Committee.  The fundraising dinner was held in Ms. Lewis’ honor.  The Danbury NewsTimes published a shortened version of this tribute on August 24, 2016.  Andrea Gartner is a Danbury Democratic Town Committee member representing the 5^th Ward.

Eleanor T. Lewis was born into this world on Memorial Day the same year that the Star-Spangled Banner was adopted as the National Anthem and she was taken to the good Lord just this year on St. Patrick’s Day.

I did not know Eleanor personally – she was the age I am now when I graduated from high school – but her biography and credentials suggest to me that I would have liked very much to have made her acquaintance and that my life would have been enriched just by knowing her.

Through the course of her life, so much happened: the New Deal; WWII; the establishment of the CIA; the Marshall Plan; NATO; the EU; the Korean, Vietnam, Persian Gulf, Iraqi and Afghani Wars. Puerto Rico became a commonwealth; Alaska and Hawaii states; hydrogen and atom bombs were detonated. Missiles, rockets, men and women launched into space – to the moon, on the moon –  to Mars and beyond Mars;  nuclear arms proliferated, then arms reduction and the dissolution of the USSR (for younger generations that means the Union of Soviet Socialists Republics) occurred.

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Monday’s sky was fiercely blue and gorgeous and perfect for an unveiling. The sculpted work, the Hatters’ Monument, by New Fairfield artist David Boyajian, undraped by Mayor Mark Boughton and a score of politicos and townspeople on the lawn of City Hall, is strong and vibrant.
It’s a marked statement about our city — its past, present and our future. At the ceremonies, Andrea Gartner, a longtime champion of downtown Danbury, warmly welcomed the work to our community, landscape and posterity. Her words say everything. I suggest you visit and look through the window, either way.

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