Waterbury - Betty Stevens Judge, age 92, passed away peacefully on February 26th 2019 at her home in Waterbury, CT.
Betty was born on April 13, 1926 in Connersville, Indiana, to Seymour Oscar Stevens and Margarita Hald Stevens, a Danish immigrant. While in her mid teens, the family moved to Louisville, KY, where she graduated from high school. A talented painter and illustrator, she worked at a local advertising agency before enrolling in Indiana University in 1945, intent on studying art. Soon she met Tom W. Judge, a world-class track star finishing his degree after wartime service in the U.S. Navy. They married the following April and remained together until his death in 1977.
In the first decade and a half of marriage they had four children and lived in a dozen communities, ultimately building a home of her design in Greenwich, CT. A brief career at The Ford Modeling Agency early in the marriage ended when, rushing across Manhattan to a shoot, she realized that she would rather be at home with her children. Following her husband’s passing, she returned to New York City, where she resumed her study of art, mainly at Parsons School of Design. She moved to Waterbury in the early 1990s to be near one of her children and his family. As she entered her decline, another son, William, devoted himself to her care. She is survived by all four children (Clark of Washington, DC, Tom of Watertown, MA, William of Waterbury, CT, and Lisa of South River, NJ) and numerous grandchildren and great grandchildren.
She lived a full life. Beautiful and stylish, she loved all forms of art, design, and architecture, nature, tennis, and her family, who miss her deeply.