Barbara "Bebe" Stetson

Barbara Brown "Bebe" Stetson, Sr., beloved wife, mother and friend, died on Tuesday in Fairfield, CT. It was the 77th anniversary of her wedding to Charles Pate Stetson, her husband of 60 years, who predeceased her in 2002. She was 99 years old. Bebe Stetson was born in Cleveland, Ohio and moved to New York City in 1926, where she graduated from The Brearley School in New York. In high school, Mrs. Stetson won the Higgins Cup for best athlete in the school three years in a row, a record that stands to this day. In 1938, she won the Drew Cup, the Club Championship for Ladies Singles tennis on grass at the Maidstone Club in East Hampton. She married Charles P. Stetson Sr. in 1942 and moved to Southport, Connecticut a few years later, where she was an avid tennis player, bridge partner, hostess and devoted Altar Guild member of the Trinity Episcopal Church for 72 years. A consummate athlete, she traveled around the world with the tennis program, People to People, with her husband, Charlie, also enjoying hiking, camping and biking trips together. She was prolific at her needlework, knitting, crocheting and needlepointing projects for family, friends and the congregation of Trinity Episcopal Church. When arthritis threatened to take away her cherished pastimes, she underwent 11 hand surgeries to replace the joints in her fingers. In a USA today article on arthritis from 2012, Mrs. Stetson was featured as a model patient. "My attitude is to get it fixed and to move along," she said at the time. "I don't want to give up my favorite activities." When her grip weakened over the last decade, she strapped her hand to the racket or club, enjoying golf and tennis up to her 98th birthday. She emulated this proactive approach to every aspect of her life, a virtue that enabled her to travel and attend family events up until the last few months of her life. She is survived by her children, Charles P. Stetson, Jr., Barbara B. Stetson, Jr., Edith W. Yovu and John H. Stetson, nine grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren.