Carolyn Ogden Brotherton

Carolyn Ogden Brotherton, 93, died peacefully on April 9, 2023, in her home in Hamden, Connecticut with her family by her side. She leaves behind her most beloved long-time partner George Leacacos as well as her twin sister, children, grandchildren, and nephew and niece.

Carolyn’s life embodied the dramatic changes in America during the 20 ^th Century and she was on the front lines of many of them. She and her twin Virginia were born in Kansas City, Missouri in August of 1929 to Owen and Mildred Ogden.  When the Ogden twins were just two months old, the stock market crashed and pitched the country, and the world, into the throes of the Great Depression for the next decade. Despite, or maybe because of, this inauspicious start, throughout her long life, Carolyn was never one to stand around and observe. She was a doer. Even as a teenaged high school student during World War II, Carolyn went to local Kansas City movie theaters and, before the films started, sold government war bonds to movie audiences to help the war effort.

After high school, Carolyn was accepted at Barnard College and moved to New York City.  In 1950, she received her bachelor’s degree in political science, after which, at the age of 21, she won a Fulbright Scholarship to travel to England to continue her studies at the University of Liverpool.

Although an excellent student, Carolyn apparently didn’t spend all her time in Liverpool studying political science. While there she met and married architect and World War II Royal Air Force Veteran Frank Philip Brotherton (whom she, a fan of Dickens’s Great Expectations , called “Pip”).

The young couple moved to the Chicago area where Carolyn earned her master’s degree in political science at the University of Illinois.  Like many other women in the 1950s, Carolyn then set aside her academic and political ambitions to focus on raising her three children.  She and Philip moved to Darien, Connecticut in the early 1960s where she became increasingly involved in local politics.

She ran for and was elected to Darien’s Representative Town Meeting and then ran for and won a seat on the Darien Board of Selectmen. She was also a dedicated member of her local chapter of the League of Women Voters, serving as president for a time.  Carolyn was always a woman with the courage of her convictions. In the early 1970s, she became the first woman in Darien to run for First Selectman, courageously running as a Democrat in a town where Republicans outnumbered Democrats 8 to 1.  She lost. Undaunted, in the next election she ran again, lost, and in the election after that ran again. Nonetheless, as a steadfast Democrat in a Republican town, she continued to be an impassioned liberal voice on the Darien Board of Selectmen for years. Even when not holding office herself, Carolyn continued to be politically active.  Well into her 80s, for example, she could be found volunteering to drive voters to the polls.

Carolyn also worked as a local newspaper reporter and then for several years as a high school history teacher.  In the late 1970s she joined the nascent consumer protection movement and took a job working for the State of Connecticut’s new consumer protection office as a consumer advocate.

By the early 1980s, with her children grown, Carolyn was ready for a bigger challenge: she was admitted to law school and earned her J.D. from the University of Maryland at the age of 53.  Upon her return to Connecticut, she practiced family, real estate, and criminal defense law in New London until her retirement. While living in New London, she served on the local Conservation Commission.

Carolyn and Philip divorced in 1986.  Not too long after her divorce a neighbor “introduced” her to George Leacacos, a charming man she had in fact dated some 40 years earlier during her freshman year in college.  She and George hit it off –again—and became devoted lifelong partners.

Carolyn was an avid reader who liked a good mystery but especially enjoyed reading, re-reading, and then re-re-reading all of Jane Austen and Anthony Trollope. She was, even she would admit, a language nerd. She took special pleasure in working the New York Times Crossword puzzle every Sunday, but her fastidiousness for the English language did not stop there. She preferred the traditional pronunciation of the word “err” (UR), railed against redundancies such as “the reason is because” (the reason is!), and never failed to chuckle to herself when she used or heard the expression “having” someone “for dinner” because of its implication of polite and well-mannered cannibalism.

Even when not actively working in government herself, throughout her life she maintained her passionate interest in politics, supporting Democratic candidates from Adlai Stevenson to Barack Obama (a favorite) to Elizabeth Warren. And no description of Carolyn’s politics would be complete without mentioning that she especially despised Richard Nixon.

Of course, Carolyn was more than politics and word nerdage.  She enjoyed all that life had to offer her.  She was an accomplished bridge player, and she and George played tennis together well into their 80s.  She loved a good antiques store and had an eagle eye for bargains and interesting pieces at the yard sales she frequented on Saturday mornings.  Carolyn and George also enjoyed traveling together; they regularly visited Greece (where George’s parents were born and where he still has family), their favorite winter getaway, Key West, and other spots including Mexico, England, and many National Parks.  They always had an adored pet in the house, most recently their Silkie Terrier, Tildy, and their Schnauzer, Pepper.

Carolyn and George both cherished summers at their modest house near Cape Cod Bay in Orleans, Massachusetts, and Carolyn loved nothing more than to sit on their deck overlooking the salt marsh, reading The New York Times in the morning, and sipping a cocktail in the evening.

Carolyn was a devoted mother and grandmother who took great interest in the lives of each of her children and grandchildren.  Family gatherings at the Cape Cod house were a highlight of every summer.

In addition to George, who was the love of her life and partner for 35 years, Carolyn leaves behind her beloved twin sister Virginia Ogden Birdsall of Waterford, Connecticut; her three adored and loving children and their spouses:  Ann Brotherton Mohr and Craig Mohr of Malibu, California; Julia Brotherton and Stephen Voltz of Gloucester, Massachusetts; and Philip and Denise Brotherton of Vancouver, Washington. She also leaves behind her grandchildren:  Sara Mohr; Christopher Mohr; Louisa Bickford and her husband David Bickford; Owen Brown and his partner Camille Forest; Andrew Brotherton; and Hannah Brotherton and her husband Sergey Neronov. She also leaves her nephew Hugh Birdsall (and wife Janis Birdsall); her niece Meredith Birdsall-Cunningham; her dear, dear friend Nellie Maristany; and George’s beloved son Jeff Leacacos who was a source of great strength and comfort to her in her later years. She was predeceased by her niece Carol Birdsall.

Donations can be made in Carolyn’s memory to the Orleans Conservation Trust: https://orleansconservationtrust.org/

A private memorial service will be scheduled at a later date. Online condolences maybe expressed at www.colonialfunerals.com