Beloved West Hartford Educator, Historian, LGBTQ Pioneer Mourned

WEST HARTFORD, CT — A beloved member of the local community, an educator known for both being an LGBTQ pioneer and an advocate of local history, is being mourned this week.

Tracey Wilson, 70, retired teacher, West Hartford's town historian, and half of the first LGBTQ couple to legally marry in Connecticut, died on Sunday of melanoma, a form of skin cancer.

All week, community members were weighing in on the loss.

"She had a big heart. She was a very intense, smart person but could relate to everyone," West Hartford Mayor Shari Cantor said Tuesday.

Cantor said Tuesday the town was preparing to host a celebration of her life at West Hartford Town Hall next week.

She said she was planning to have some type of tribute for Wilson at Tuesday's West Hartford Town Council meeting.

According to Cantor, Wilson kept in touch with her former students for decades and her group of friends and admirers grew exponentially over time.

"Her network grew so much because of her students," Cantor said. "They wanted to remain connected to her."

Meanwhile, Cantor said teaching West Hartford its history was always in Wilson's soul, even after she retired from the teaching profession.

"She was always sharing with us, telling us stories," Cantor said. "Teaching was in her DNA."

The West Hartford Chamber of Commerce said in a statement that it was "heartbroken" by the loss of Wilson.

"The West Hartford Chamber is deeply saddened by the passing of our esteemed colleague, Tracey Wilson," wrote the chamber Monday.

"Her tireless dedication to education, preserving history, and advancing equality made a lasting impact on our community. Her legacy will continue to inspire us all."

Wilson was well educated in history and her avocation became her vocation.

According to Wilson's Facebook profile, she was a former history teacher in the West Hartford School System, teaching at Conard High School.

She was a teacher in West Hartford for 35 years and, since 2004, was the town's official historian.

Wilson had a bachelor's and master's degrees from Trinity College in Hartford and a Ph.D in history from Brown University.

Even after retiring as a history teacher, she never stopped teaching history.

In 2018, she published a book called "Life in West Hartford," which detailed the history of the town from its incorporation to the present day.

The work is a comprehensive narrative of the town she lived in and loved.

But it was in 2008, when she married the love of her life that Wilson's stature grew from prominent to iconic.

On Nov. 12, 2008, Wilson and her longtime partner Elizabeth "Beth" Bye married in a ceremony at West Hartford Town Hall, Connecticut's first-ever legalized gay marriage.

They remained together since, raising four children in the process.

Bye went on to serve as a state senator from 2011-19 in Hartford, representing the 5th Senate District.

Tuesday, Bye posted on Facebook a poignant message thanking the litany of well-wishers offering condolences in the community.

"Our family is overwhelmed by the support we are receiving after Tracey’s death. Thank you to our incredible community of love," wrote Bye.

She also posted a link to Wilson's obituary, calling it "a primary document source she so often used to put together local history stories of the people who lived here. We hope we captured what she would have wanted to in limited space."

Wilson’s funeral will be held on Thursday, March 6, at the Meeting House of First Church of West Hartford, 12 S. Main St., at 11 a.m. It will be followed by a reception in her honor at the West Hartford Town Hall Auditorium, 50 S. Main St. West Hartford.

To read Tracey Wilson's complete obituary, click on this link.