Alice M. Crowther

Alice Crowther, 97, passed away peacefully on March 18, 2025 after a long and graceful life. She was a resident of Fairfield, CT, since 2004, but previously lived in Westport, CT, for 33 years.

Born in Flushing, NY, to Hubert and Adelaide Ebdon, Alice and her family subsequently moved to Manhasset, NY, where she graduated from Manhasset High School and went on to graduate from Green Mountain Junior College in Vermont.

After attending secretarial school, she met her future husband, William (Bill) Crowther, when he spotted her at a luncheonette counter and asked to be introduced to her. Both were Manhasset High School graduates, but Bill was four years her senior. Coincidentally, each had been voted “best looking” and “laziest” by their respective graduating classmates.

They married in 1948 and moved to a home in Port Washington, NY, which they fondly referred to as their “Honeymoon Cottage.” Both Alice and Bill embarked on what would become the “Mad Men” lifestyle, commuting daily by train into Manhattan to work in the advertising agency business.

Alice landed a job at Young & Rubicam (Y&R), which created some of the most iconic ads in history. As assistant to director in their TV Film Department, she briefed the agency production staff on all TV assignments, procured bids for TV commercials, and acted as coordinator between the agency, the producers, and the TV film production departments.

After six successful years at Y&R, Alice took maternity leave to give birth to her first daughter. Though the agency was eager for Alice to return to work, she decided that motherhood was her bigger calling.

In the years that followed, Alice and Bill had two more daughters. They raised the girls in Port Washington until 1971 when the family moved to Westport, CT.

Soon after arriving in Westport, Alice began volunteering at Connecticut Renaissance, a non-profit drug treatment, prevention, and education program based in town. The staff quickly recognized that Alice’s skills and organizational abilities were so outstanding that they hired her as office manager. The refrain within the office was, “Go Ask Alice,” because everyone turned to her when they had a question or a problem. Though she stepped down from her paid role in 1978, she continued to help with special projects.

In 1982, Alice began a new chapter by turning her love of dancing into her next part-time career. She attained dance exercise certification and became an aerobic dance instructor at the Westport YMCA. For eight years, as part of the Y’s in-house aerobics program known as The Fun Fitness Company, she taught classes to older adults. Each season, she selected the music for her classes and choreographed the routines. When The Fun Fitness Company left the YMCA to open their own separate facility in 1990, Alice moved with them and took up reception desk and administrative duties at their new location.

The relationships Alice formed with the women in her classes became dear friendships. They’d regularly meet after class for coffee at Oscar’s Deli on Westport’s Main Street. The gang became known as “The Oscarettes,” and they continued to meet for decades, long after they’d hung up their aerobic dance sneakers.

Making friends, and staying in touch with her oldest gal pals, was a hallmark of Alice’s life. She was an amazing letter-writer, and when computers and cell phones came along, she embraced the technology. She loved Facebook and Google, kept a detailed Christmas card list, organized reunions, and never let a friend go unheard from for too long.

In her later decades, Alice returned to volunteer work. Organizations included Westport’s Save Our Strays (an animal rescue group), Fairfield’s Grasmere (an adult day care center), and her church, Trinity Episcopal, in Southport. At Trinity, she helped with office tasks, visited the church’s homebound or drove them to services, and assisted with shopping and cooking for the church’s outreach programs. She was also a regular in their knitting, prayer, and Bible study groups. As always, she made new friends along the way.

Above all, Alice was loved dearly by her three daughters, their spouses and her four grandchildren. As the matriarch of her extended family, she was also the beloved stand-in for her two siblings who pre-deceased her by many years.

Her stories were cherished by all and her sense of humor was often unexpected, disarming and adorable. Even the caregivers who helped Alice in the last few years of her life fell in love with her resilience, acceptance, willingness to always try her best, and her gentle, sweet nature. Her family will always love her “to the moon and back.”

Alice is survived by her daughters Wendy Crowther (Teri), Tracey Maya (Christopher) and Kim Manning (Jim), and her grandchildren, Hadley, Alison, James and Spencer. She was predeceased by her husband, Bill in 2018, a few months shy of their 70th anniversary.

A memorial service will take place at Trinity Episcopal Church in Southport, CT, on Saturday, April 26, at 11:00 a.m. A reception will follow in Trinity’s Parish Hall.

Donations in Alice’s memory can be made online to Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC). Please use the following link to go directly to her page:

http://mskcc.convio.net/goto/Alice

MSKCC held deep significance for Alice due to the many services it provided to family members over the years.