Dorothy Mae Winn Cecchinato

Dorothy Mae Winn Cecchinato

NORTH CANAAN — Dorothy Mae Winn Cecchinato, 95, passed comfortably and peacefully on June 13, 2025, at Geer Nursing Home. She was born October 4, 1929, in Torrington, the daughter of Leo David Winn and Ester Gertrude (Hart) Winn. She was the oldest of four children growing up in West Cornwall. She attended grammar school at the Cornwall Consolidated School and finally 7-8th grade at the Salisbury Central School. Dorothy graduated from Housatonic Valley Regional High School in 1947 and was awarded the Bay Path College Award. Following graduation, she married her high school sweetheart Anthony F. Cecchinato, Sr. They settled in North Canaan and were married for a wonderful 59 years.

Dorothy was very active in sports throughout her life playing softball and basketball through high school and continuing softball on the Canaan Girls softball team. She was an active golfer and bowler participating in these sports into her late 70’s. She enjoyed skiing and would frequent the slopes at Catamount with her husband Anthony throughout the winter. Several ski trips to Colorado are also fond memories for her and the family. She always enjoyed watching sports and with her husband attended numerous sporting events that her three granddaughters participated in all through high school and college.

Her first job was working as a secretary at the General Electric Company in Norfolk. She worked there for 8 years from 1947 to 1955. After GE, and after raising her son, she began working in 1965 at the Housatonic Valley Regional High School, Regional District One in Falls Village, as the Clerk to the Board for all of the Region One schools. She logged a total of 36 years of service at HVRHS. In 2018, she was one of the first group of Honorees inducted to the HVRHS Wall of Honor. After retirement, she continued supporting activities at HVRHS through her work with the HVRHS Alumni Committee and the Blue and Gold Alumni bulletin. In addition to her career at HVRHS, she worked on the Planning and Zoning Commission in North Canaan and was also the chairman of Housing Authority of North Canaan. She worked on the Democratic Town Committee and was a long time member of the North Canaan Board of Education until she was 90. She was an active member in the Cranford Club for many years in North Canaan.
Dorothy is predeceased by her brother David Hart Winn of Marcellus, New York.

She is survived by two sisters: Marion Elizabeth Winn Staples of New Smyrna Beach, Florida; and Gertrude Lucille Winn (Kroehle) Hunker of Falls Village.

Her son: Anthony F. Cecchinato Jr. and his wife Elizabeth Cecchinato of Litchfield.

Granddaughters: Andrea Leigh (Cecchinato) Calore and husband Dan Calore of Watertown, Connecticut; Ashley Lyn (Cecchinato) Labonte and husband DJ Labonte of Litchfield; and Abagail Elizabeth (Cecchinato) Palesty and husband Alexander Palesty of Woodbury, Connecticut.

Great Grandchildren: Zachary and William Calore; Addison, Harper and Vance Labonte; and Greyson, Jack and Callan Palesty
There will be a church service at the St. Martin of Tours Church of St. Joseph in North Canaan starting at 10 a.m. on Friday June 20, 2025. The burial will be at the St. Joseph’s Cemetery in North Canaan immediately following the service. There will be a reception for family and friends to celebrate her life at a location to be determined following the burial.

The family asks that in lieu of flowers to consider making a donation to the North Canaan Cranford Club.

Latest News

Juneteenth and Mumbet’s legacy

Juneteenth and Mumbet’s legacy

Sheffield resident, singer Wanda Houston will play Mumbet in "1781" on June 19 at 7 p.m. at The Center on Main, Falls Village.

Jeffery Serratt

In August of 1781, after spending thirty years as an enslaved woman in the household of Colonel John Ashley in Sheffield, Massachusetts, Elizabeth Freeman, also known as Mumbet, was the first enslaved person to sue for her freedom in court. At the time of her trial there were 5,000 enslaved people in the state. MumBet’s legal victory set a precedent for the abolition of slavery in Massachusetts in 1790, the first in the nation. She took the name Elizabeth Freeman.

Local playwrights Lonnie Anderson and Linda Rossi will tell her story in a staged reading of “1781” to celebrate Juneteenth, ay 7 p.m. at The Center on Main in Falls Village, Connecticut.Singer Wanda Houston will play MumBet, joined by actors Chantell McCulloch, Tarik Shah, Kim Canning, Sherie Berk, Howard Platt, Gloria Parker and Ruby Cameron Miller. Musical composer Donald Sosin added, “MumBet is an American hero whose story deserves to be known much more widely.”

Keep ReadingShow less
history

A sweet collaboration with students in Torrington

A sweet collaboration with students in Torrington

The new mural painted by students at Saint John Paul The Great Academy in Torrington, Connecticut.

Photo by Kristy Barto, owner of The Nutmeg Fudge Company

Thanks to a unique collaboration between The Nutmeg Fudge Company, local artist Gerald Incandela, and Saint John Paul The Great Academy in Torrington, Connecticut a mural — designed and painted entirely by students — now graces the interior of the fudge company.

The Nutmeg Fudge Company owner Kristy Barto was looking to brighten her party space with a mural that celebrated both old and new Torrington. She worked with school board member Susan Cook and Incandela to reach out to the Academy’s art teacher, Rachael Martinelli.

Keep ReadingShow less
community

In the company of artists

In the company of artists

Curator Henry Klimowicz, left, with artists Brigitta Varadi and Amy Podmore at The Re Institute

Aida Laleian

For anyone who wants a deeper glimpse into how art comes about, an on-site artist talk is a rich experience worth the trip.On Saturday, June 14, Henry Klimowicz’s cavernous Re Institute — a vast, converted 1960’s barn north of Millerton — hosted Amy Podmore and Brigitta Varadi, who elucidated their process to a small but engaged crowd amid the installation of sculptures and two remarkable videos.

Though they were all there at different times, a common thread among Klimowicz, Podmore and Varadi is their experience of New Hampshire’s famed MacDowell Colony. The silence, the safety of being able to walk in the woods at night, and the camaraderie of other working artists are precious goads to hardworking creativity. For his part, for fifteen years, Klimowicz has promoted community among thousands of participating artists, in the hope that the pairs or groups he shows together will always be linked. “To be an artist,” he stressed, “is to be among other artists.”

Keep ReadingShow less
exhibit