Obituaries

Catherine Billings

Published: Nov 11, 2026 6:00 am

After a brief illness, Catherine Billings passed away on October 26 at her home in Topsham, Maine.

Cathie lived in Newtown for most of her life, graduating from Newtown High School in 1954. Cathie’s mother insisted that women should be self-sufficient: this was not an issue. After training for a year at Butler Business School in Bridgeport, Cathie was a bookkeeper and general office worker for more than 40 years. She expected her own daughters to be self-sufficient and college educated, a goal that she worked hard and saved to support. She also expected her daughters to follow her example as a volunteer. She was a Sunday school teacher, Girl Scout leader, driver for FISH, and volunteer at the Morris Street School kindergarten in Danbury.

A 1976 adult education class led to a 50-year passion for quilting. Cathie was active in quilting guilds in New York and Connecticut, making life-long friends, attending shows, winning awards, amassing an impressive body of work, donating work for charities, and mentoring new quilters.

Cathie’s happy place, however, was always the beach and the sea. Although she and her husband Brian travelled to Europe, Africa, Australia, and South America, they sailed around coastal New England at every opportunity. They had many adventures (including a year sailing down the Atlantic coast and to the Bahamas with their dog Trudy) and misadventures (including Hurricane Bob) aboard their boat.

An eternal optimist, Cathie took life’s setbacks, including her own terminal illness, with little complaint. She was tough, once cooking a meal for visiting family with a “sore back” that turned out to be a fracture. And she had our backs, from driving a niece to chemotherapy appointments to standing in as a birth coach for a deployed family member. Cathie thrived on being with others. Until she moved in 2025, Cathie could often be found at Newtown Senior Center, meeting with friends, exercising, and learning. When she moved to Maine to be closer to her daughters, Cathie insisted on living in a senior community so that she could continue to socialize with new friends, join interest groups, and be independent.

Cathie was predeceased by her husband of more than 60 years, Brian Bancroft-Billings; parents Frank and Elsie Bawden of Newtown; and sister Dorothy Tillberg of Ft Lauderdale, Fla.

Cathie is survived by her sister Susan Abrahamsen of Marlborough, Mass.; daughters Julia Prescott (Mark) of Brunswick, Maine, and Sandra Bancroft-Billings (Stephen Sepinuck) of Freeport, Maine; grandchildren Allison Prescott, Rachel Shepherd (Rob), Benjamin Sepinuck, and Jacob Sepinuck (Jolina); great-grandsons Jack, Theodore, and Sam Shepherd, and many nieces and nephews.

The family will be holding a small, private remembrance in the spring. If you wish to honor Cathie’s memory, please consider volunteering your time or making a donation to support food security in your community.

Former Newtown resident Catherine Billings passed away on October 26 at her home in Topsham, Maine.

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