Janet Lewis Spence Stiewing's ashes will be laid to rest in Stepney Cemetery, 21 Pepper Street, Monroe, where her parents are buried, on October 29, at 1 pm. Ms Stiewing died February 14, 2013, in Canaan, where she had lived for many years after having moved away from Newtown. She was born October 25, 1923, in Bridgeport, and was the daughter of the late Grace Smith and Otis Lewis.

She will be honored as a World War II veteran by a color guard from the Navy. Her military flag will find a home with the flag that was given to her upon the death of her first husband, John Campbell Spence, the father of Darcelle and Pamela, and also a Navy veteran.

In 1960 she and her new husband, Richard Stiewing, along with their seven children, moved to Newtown from Bridgeport to start a new life together. She combined her two children with her husband's five, and proceeded to raise one big happy family.

That first Christmas in Newtown was one of her proudest moments. She had turned a family of seven blended children into a family of eight. The newest edition, even though just out of the hospital due to being very premature, was honored by playing the Christ child in the living Crèche at St Rose of Lima Christmas pageant. She loved Christmas and embraced her new Catholicism with fervor.

Another annual event was to invite a couple of residents from Fairfield Hills Hospital to share Thanksgiving dinner with the family. She always wanted to share the love.

Ms Stiewing had gone to college in Rhode Island at a time when most women did not follow that path. She also proudly served her country as an aviation machinist mate for the United States Navy during World War II. She and her mother were among the first group of civilian women taught to use a "Tommy gun" around the time of the outbreak of World War II.

All who knew her miss her very much.

Her brother Griffin Lewis of Norwalk; children, James Stiewing, Martha Corbett, and Monica Duchanick, all of Newtown, Mary Ellen Treffs of Highland Falls, N.Y., Pamela Flores of Tepoztlén, Mexico, Darcelle O'Connor of Eagle, Colo., and R.B. Stiewing of Falls Village, Conn.; 11 grandchildren; and eight great-grandchildren survive Ms Stiewing. Her husband Richard and son Karl Stiewing predeceased her.