Betty Ann Dzelzitis, age 94, died on February 25, 2022.
She was born in Boston on June 22, 1927. Her parents were Charles Franklin Branch, M.D., and Annie Sargent Branch of Waban, Massachusetts.
Betty Ann graduated from the Newton, Massachusetts, schools and attended the University of Vermont. After several years of working in Boston, she moved to New York state with her husband, James Garner Allen, where he began his law practice. They had two children, Jennifer Ann Allen and Samuel Sargent Allen. The marriage ended in divorce.
In 1967, Betty Ann married Andrew Dzelzitis, an artist and teacher.
Betty Ann worked for the New York state division of the American Cancer Society (ACS) for 35 years, starting as a volunteer, then becoming the first executive director of the Columbia County unit and ending her career as capital area executive director in Albany.
With the help and support of many wonderful volunteers, she expanded the concept of door-to-door crusade to include a chairperson in every town who, in addition to fundraising, reached out with support to cancer patients. These efforts drew the attention of the National ACS, who then appointed her to serve on a task force for the residential crusade, taking her to locations across the country in support of the concept.
She spent 41 years in the Hudson River Valley in Kinderhook, New York.
In 1992, Betty Ann and Andrew retired to Home Place in Warren, Vermont -- a house that had been in her family since her great-grandparents settled there in 1844.
She served on the Warren Public Library board and the board of trustees for the Vermont Historical Society.
Following retirement, Betty Ann and her beloved Andrew spent 23 years enjoying each other’s company engaged in treasured conversations while perusing excellent lunches throughout central Vermont until his death in March of 2010. The couple was married for 43 years.
Betty Ann was known by all for her joyful sense of humor, her intellectual adventurousness, her passion for art and her love of gardening.
She is survived by her cherished children, Jennifer Ann Allen and her husband Tom Straw, of Branford, Connecticut; Samuel Sargent Allen and his wife, Diane, of Bayside, New York; as well as four grandchildren, Christopher Soloway, Parker Soloway, Hunter Allen and Ashley Allen; and her dear friend Camilla Ashe Williams Behn.
A celebration of Betty Ann’s life will be held when the lilacs bloom.
