Arlene Barone McAuliffe obituary

#MiddleburyCT #Obituary

Loving wife, mother and grandmother

Arlene Barone McAuliffe, 77, of Middlebury, passed away peacefully at home on August 10, 2024, after a long illness. She was the devoted wife of Terrence Stephen McAuliffe.

Arlene was born in Stamford, Connecticut, on February 1, 1947, to the late Socrates and Stella (Bavetz) Barone. She grew up in Springdale, Connecticut, and graduated from Stamford High School in 1964. She earned a bachelor’s degree in education from Western Connecticut State University in 1968, followed by a master’s degree and a 6th-year degree in education and reading from the same institution.

Her teaching career began in 1968 as a first-grade teacher at Julia A. Stark Elementary School in Glenbrook. After marriage in 1969, she taught at Arlington New York Elementary School and then returned to Connecticut to teach at Huckleberry Hill Elementary School in Brookfield. In 1972, she took a seven-year break to raise her two children in Bethel, working part-time as a substitute teacher and as a religious education volunteer at St. Mary’s Parish. She returned full-time to Bethel Public Schools for the next 28 years, teaching fourth grade. Arlene received Bethel’s Sarah Mass Award for excellence in teaching and the Connecticut Celebration of Excellence award for inventive and creative teaching. She retired in 2006 after moving to Middlebury and became a part-time tutor at Pomperaug Elementary School in Southbury.

In addition to caring for her grandchildren, Arlene was an active member of Middlebury’s Charter Revision Committee and Ethics Committee. During Middlebury’s 2007 bicentennial celebration, she served as executive producer of “The Chauncey Judd Adventure,” a play commemorating local history.

Besides her husband of almost 55 years, Terrence S. McAuliffe, Arlene is survived by her daughters Tara Nicoletti of Wilton, and Bethany McAuliffe Arnauckas of Middlebury. She also leaves her grandchildren Emma and Jack Nicoletti, Abigail and Justin Arnauckas; her brother, Ronald Barone and his wife, Beverly, of Scottsdale, Arizona; her nieces, Arlene Barra Morris, Nancy Barra Jones, Ronna Barone Cudzilo, and Laura Barone; and her nephew, Mark Barra.

A funeral Mass will be celebrated on Wednesday, August 14, at 11 a.m. at St. John of the Cross Church in Middlebury. Friends may call at the Brookside Memorial Funeral Home at 200 Benson Road in Middlebury from 9 to 10 a.m. Burial will be private for the family at St. Peter’s Cemetery on Lake Avenue Extension in Danbury.

UPDATED August 14 at 10 a.m. to correct street number of funeral home.