Elizabeth Wisniewski

Elizabeth Banas Wisniewski passed away peacefully on January 28, 2017 at her home in Preston, CT. She was born in Norwich, CT on March 26, 1921 between the roaring waters of the Yantic Falls and the train tracks along Yantic Street. The daughter of Anna (nee Garbacz) and Wawrzyniec Banas, two poor Polish peasants who met and married in Vienna, before immigrating to Norwich in the early 1900s. Elizabeth grew up in the mill houses of the Falls Mill, a cotton mill where both her parents and her older sister, Caroline, were all employed.

Elizabeth grew to be a beautiful, shy, young woman. She was allowed to finish high school rather than going to work at the mill, only because her mother thought she was too slight and skinny for the work in the mill. She had a beautiful singing voice and loved to sing operas or religious songs at home. During weekly masses at St. Joseph Church her clear soprano voice would shine out from the pews.

Betty loved to dance and at one dance in 1946, she noticed a tall handsome man across the room. He had striking blond hair and a bounce in his step. The next thing she knew, he was striding over to her and asked her to dance. Wrapping his arms around her waist he spun her off across the floor. He was Edward Wisniewski from Preston, newly returned from two years in the Pacific in the Navy. Within a year the two were married at St. Joseph Church in Norwich on November 22, 1947.

They lived first in Norwich and finally settled in Preston. They had 6 children and raised them all to be hard working, frugal, and with a love of learning. Ed and Betty worked beautifully as a team. She was an excellent cook, many of her recipes remain favorites among her children and grandchildren and her pies were the best! It was a common sight to have 3 pies cooling on the kitchen counter any time of year. At her side, all the girls in her family learned to be exceptional pie makers, yet somehow no one made crust that could rival Betty's.

Ed and Betty shared 60 years of marriage. They loved to travel, spend time with family, and dance together any chance they could. Ed passed away in 2013, and right up until the end they could be caught holding hands and whispering sweetly to each other. We know she is now finally reunited with Ed — that she can once again see him striding across the dance floor towards her to spin her off with his arms holding her close.

Betty is survived by her six children, Richard Wisniewski and his wife, Terry, of Pensacola, FL, Edward Wisniewski and his wife, Barbara, of Bozrah, CT, Marianne Byrne and her husband, David, of Prospect, CT, Kathleen Jaycox of Carbondale, CO, Susan Wisniewski of Beacon, NY, and Christine Wisniewski and her husband Paul Greenspan, of Wellfleet, MA, as well as 10 grandchildren and 6 great-grandchildren.

Visitation from 6-8 pm, February 3 at Labenski’s Funeral Home, in Norwich followed by a mass on February 4 at 11 am at St. Joseph Church in Norwich. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to St. Joseph Church.