Elizabeth Lord Bonsal, loved by many
Elizabeth Lord Bonsal, 90, died peacefully Sunday, Aug. 22, 2024. She was the daughter of Iverson and William Christie Lord, born Nov. 19, 1933, and initially raised in Pooler, Ga., before her family moved to Savannah, where she graduated from Savannah High School and Armstrong College. In 1958, she moved to Greenwich Village, NYC, where she met Stephen Bonsal. They married in 1960 and lived in Stuyvesant Town with their growing family before moving to Riverside, Conn. She and Steve remained in Riverside until they moved to Lewes in 2020.
Betty was politically active in Democratic Party politics in Greenwich. She served as chair of the Greenwich Democratic Town Committee from 2001-03. In the 2000s, she began serving as a justice of the peace for Greenwich, and she greatly valued having officiated many weddings. In 2016, she officiated the wedding of her daughter, Liz, and daughter-in-law Tracy, marking her 246th gay marriage.
Betty was an avid tennis and paddle tennis player. She treasured the times she spent with family on Squam Lake. The love of classical music that she and Steve shared led them frequently to performances at the Metropolitan Opera and Glimmerglass Festival. They also pursued their love of the arts and time spent with friends in New York at the Century Club, and in Greenwich at the Greenwich Symphony. They were members of a community playgroup known as Turkey-of-the-Month Club, enthusiastically staging their living room productions. Betty regularly attended the First Congregational Church of Greenwich, where she also served as a deacon and volunteered at the Rummage Room.
Talented, hilarious, and loving, Betty was dearly loved in turn by family and friends.
She was predeceased by her husband, Stephen; her son, Stephen; and her brother, Iverson Lord. She is survived by her sister, Caroline Wilson; twin brother, William (Billy) Lord; her daughter, Elizabeth (Liz) Bonsal and her wife Tracy Toscano of Lewes; son, Dudley Bonsal of Harrisonburg, Va.; daughter, Virginia (Jenn) Nickell and her husband Jeffrey Nickell of Fairfield, Conn., and their children Ellie and Jack.
