Elizabeth A. "B.Anne" Greene

Elizabeth Anne (B.Anne) Greene, 85, of Potowomut, Rhode Island, passed away peacefully on July 15, 2024, in the gentle care of Hospice, having lived in her well-loved home until the day she died.

B.Anne grew up in Guilford, Connecticut, daughter of Jane Peele (Williams) and Nathanael Bacon Greene, the eldest of five busy siblings. She left Guilford to attend Hollins College in Virginia, where she earned a degree in Chemistry.  Subsequently, she lived for several years in Cambridge, Massachusetts, before settling in Wellesley to raise her daughter, Kate.

B.Anne enjoyed a pioneering spirit and across the span of her professional life was involved with expanding frontiers, first in the realm of hematology research at Harvard University’s Thorndike Memorial Lab, and then on the forefront of early microcomputing and computer networking with Digital Equipment Corporation.

In the 1960s B.Anne developed a love of skiing thanks to her Uncle Sydney Williams who had been in the 10th Mountain Division.  In the early 1970s she started to experiment with quilting.  Subsequently, she built a later life that revolved around these two great passions: quilting and downhill skiing.  B.Anne also found great pleasure in travel.  From the 1960s through 1980s she made multiple trips to Europe and Asia, including a 1989 around the world expedition with her daughter Kate exploring Japan, Hong Kong, China, London and Paris.

In 1997, B.Anne and her longtime partner, Michael Weinstein, moved West in pursuit of Rocky Mountain snow and settled in the small town of Glenwood Springs, Colorado.  In Glenwood, she spent winters making the most of season passes at Aspen.  When not on the slopes, B.Anne focused on quilting, and engaging with a cadre of like minded souls in the Roaring Fork Quilt Guild.  She enjoyed working in Sandy Boyd’s quilt store, giving occasional lessons, organizing quilt shows in Aspen and Glenwood Springs, and prolifically producing quilts for family, friends, and charitable causes.

In 2010, B.Anne was lured away from the Western Slope by the arrival of granddaughters Hailee and Casey, and moved back to New England.  She alighted first in Newport, Rhode Island, then sojourned in Bristol, finally settling in to her little house in Potowomut, next door to her daughter, son-in-law, and granddaughters, along the banks of the Greene River.

After arriving back East it was not long before B.Anne joined the Quilters by the Sea Guild.  As a guild member, both in Colorado and Rhode Island, she frequently took on leadership and organizing roles for quilt shows and other activities. She was well known for her willingness to give gentle suggestions when fellow quilters were stuck for ideas, and frequently donated work for charity auctions and good causes.  Fortunate are the souls able to wrap themselves in a quilt made by B.Anne.

In addition to skiing and quilting, in later years B.Anne particularly savored her solo road trips between New England and Colorado, following a trail marked by stops highlighted in her American Quilters’ Road Atlas, zig-zagging through Pennsylvania, Iowa, Ohio and Nebraska.  She gave a home to many well-weathered venerable quilts that she encountered on such trips, in respect for the lives that made them and lived with them.

B.Anne’s favorite times, however, were spent being Grandma to Hailee and Casey, who will forever cherish their memories of Grandma boogie boarding with them at Second Beach.

B.Anne’s sister Jennie passed in February on Martha’s Vineyard, and her brother Walter passed in Maine six days after B.Anne.  B.Anne is also predeceased by her partner, Michael Weinstein. She is survived by her brother, Sandy, and his wife Frances; Walter’s wife, Joan; sister Esther; daughter Kate, her husband Rob, and granddaughters Hailee and Casey; nephew John, his wife Kelley, and great niece and great nephew Caroline Jane and Nate; and nephew Prescott; as well as a cascade of cousins.

Family and friends are invited to a Celebration of Life and Quilt Show at Forge Farm on Saturday, September 14, 2024 at 1pm.  Those who have been gifted quilts by B.Anne are encouraged to send photos for inclusion in the show to [email protected] .  For more information about this gathering or to rsvp, please email Kate at the same address.  Attendees are encouraged to boldly wear their favorite colors in solidarity with B.Anne’s love of the spectrum of Iight.