Mary Jane

Madden

Active In

Newtown Community

For Many Years

Mary Jane “Bunny” Madden, 75, a longtime resident of Newtown who was active in political and community activities, died January 15, at St Mary’s Hospital in Waterbury, following surgery for pancreatic cancer. Born Mary Jane Davidson on October 15, 1933, in Oklahoma City, she acquired the nickname “Bunny” as a newborn from her father who saw her wrapped in a pink blanket, looking like a baby bunny. She grew up in Indiana and graduated from Indiana University in 1954 with a music major and journalism minor.

In the years immediately after college, she worked for trade publications in New York City, including Iron Age and Electronics Age, and was a copy editor for the General Features Syndicate, which supplied columns, crossword puzzles, and comic strips to newspapers. She also worked on the copy desks of The Indianapolis Times and Indianapolis News.

She served two stints as chairman of the Newtown Democratic Town Committee in the mid-1980s and early 1990s, and was elected to two terms as a member of the Democratic State Central Committee, representing the 28th Senatorial District, which included Newtown, Easton, Fairfield, and part of Monroe.

She wrote a home-published booklet called Running on a Shoestring, which served as a how-to manual for a variety of first-time candidates for local offices.

Mrs Madden also served three years as a public member of the Connecticut Alcohol and Drug Abuse Commission.

She was a co-founder and later president of the Spay and Neuter Association of Newtown and was a volunteer at the Dorothy Day Hospitality House in Danbury.

Mrs Madden also was co-editor of a history of Newtown published in 1989 by the League of Women Voters and was one of 14 nominees in 1983 for the first Outstanding Citizen of Newtown Award by the Newtown Jaycees and Jaycee Women.

At times over the years, before and after she moved to Newtown in 1978, she was a Girl Scout leader, a Cub Scout den mother, choir director, and avid bridge player.

She is survived by her husband of 55 years, Richard L. Madden of Newtown, and a daughter, Mary F. Ryan of Bethel.

A memorial service was held January 23 at the Honan Funeral Home, Newtown.

 Memorial contributions may be made to the Cyrenius H. Booth Library, 25 Main Street, Newtown CT 06470 or the Spay and Neuter Association of Newtown, PO Box 352, Newtown CT 06470.

The Newtown Bee        January 23, 2009