Groton Open Space Association

Mary Walton, Who Led Fight Against Jetport, Dies

GRISWOLD — Mary B. Walton of Griswold, who helped lead a successful fight to block creation of a jetport in Northeast Connecticut in 1969, died Feb. 9, 2006, at the age of 92.

Ms. Walton, a former high school English teacher and a Brooklyn, NY, native, moved to Griswold with her husband in 1969. Sidney Van Zandt, a GOSA director, writes that Ms. Walton “found that a local senator had proposed to develop the very rural northeast corner of Connecticut with a ‘Jetport Industrial City.’ She was one of many individuals and groups across the state that successfully fought those plans, as well as the senator who promoted them. Over the years, she lobbied for mass transit and against inappropriate development of rural areas, and she took on many other issues in support of a cleaner, better environment.

“She was a tiny lady with a deep voice and a good sense of humor, but she had a strong will that said ‘Don’t tread on me, or the environment.’ She has been a powerful role model who believed that you can and must fight ‘city hall’ if plans are going to have disastrous results for our surroundings.”