January 10, 1928-September 22, 2017

Laura Byers

Laura Breckinridge Ten Eyck Byers, 89, died peacefully on Friday, Sept. 22. She was a recent resident of Noble Horizons.

Born in Rye, N.Y., Laura was a bright and thoughtful soul from the start. After her father and mother divorced when she was seven, she lived with her mother in her grandparents’ home. Her final two years of high school were at Oldfields School for Girls in Baltimore.

Seeing her thirst for learning, her great aunt offered to pay for college if Laura attended Vassar. Laura jumped at the opportunity and thrived there. She served as editor of the newspaper, was elected chief justice, and made very dear friends who continued to be anchors throughout her life.

After graduating from Vassar in 1949, she moved with friends to Washington, D.C., where she worked for the C.I.A. There she met her future husband, Wheaton, who also worked for the C.I.A. and later for the Department of State. They married in October 1952, and over the next 16 years they lived in The Hague, Belgrade, Salzburg, and West Berlin. In each new country Laura mastered enough of the local language to manage the household, host diplomatic events, and communicate with her children’s teachers, friends and their parents.

After returning to Bethesda, she went back to school and in 1972 graduated from Catholic University with a master’s degree in library science. From 1972 to 1985 she worked at Harvard University’s Dumbarton Oaks as the librarian for landscape art and architecture. When she and Wheaton retired to Canaan Valley, she continued working part-time as a consultant for Wave Hill Public Garden and Cultural Center in the Bronx.

During her 32 years in Canaan, Laura was an active volunteer for the Red Cross Blood Mobile, the Geer Village Auxiliary, the Yale Summer School of Music’s Battell Stoeckel House and the Norfolk Congregational Church, and was a member of the Hawthorne Club. She was a voracious reader—known to digest a 600-page biography in one day—and made weekly visits to the Norfolk Library as well as the Douglas Library in North Canaan.

Her children remember her as the tender-hearted soul of the family whose progressive values and keen sense of justice inspired them to want to make the world better. Her personalized book nameplate read: “I enjoy sharing my books as I do my friends, asking only that you treat them well and see them safely home.”

She was preceded in death—by exactly five months—by her husband of nearly 65 years, Wheaton B. Byers, and by her brother, Hendrix Ten Eyck. She is survived by her four children and their families: Karen Dimmick Byers and her wife, Lillie Mikesell; Douglas Stafford Byers and his wife, Virginia, and her daughter, Imari; Wheaton (Tony) Bradish Byers Jr. and his wife, Laury Alexander, and their daughter, Maria; and Elisabeth (Lisa) Cabell Byers and her wife, Laurie Gallo, and their daughters, Muriel and Emma.

A service in remembrance of Laura Byers’s life will be held at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 4, at the North Canaan Congregational Church, Route 44, 172 Lower Road. A family graveside service will immediately follow. Memorial donations may be sent to the Douglas Library, PO Box 608, 108 Main Street, North Canaan, CT 06018. Arrangements are under the care of the Newkirk-Palmer Funeral Home in Canaan.