It is with a heavy heart that we announce the passing of Elizabeth E. Elia (nee Elizabeth Iley Evans), age 57, in the town of Hadley, Massachusetts on the 22nd of June, 2019. She passed after a long illness, surrounded by her loving children Emily and James.

Elizabeth (“Liz”) was born on March 20, 1962 in Bethesda, Maryland, the daughter of Laurence Evans, PhD, and Elizabeth T. Evans, CPA. After leaving the DC area, the family moved briefly to Vancouver, British Colombia before finally settling in Vestal, New York where Liz made some of her dearest life-long friends.

Liz graduated from Vestal High School in 1980 and attended Hamilton College as a Classics major before transferring to McGill University in Montreal where she majored in English Literature. After graduating from McGill with a BA in 1984, Liz went to work as an editor at Workman Publishing in New York until deciding to pursue a master’s degree in English from the State University of New York at Binghamton (SUNY Binghamton/Binghamton University). She worked briefly as Director of Anniversary Gifts at Manhattan College before turning to her true calling: education. She entered and graduated from the MAT program at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, CT, and thereafter pursued a career as a teacher at the elementary, middle, and high school levels, specializing in English, English Language Acquisition, and English Literature. She also volunteered with the nonprofit group Hope for Haiti, traveling to that country to fight poverty through education.

Liz was a remarkable teacher. Watching her interact with children was truly amazing. During her career she received many honors, awards and accolades, but none of these accomplishments were as important to her as that of being a mother to her daughter Emily T. Elia, a doctoral student in Comparative Political Science at Rice University, and her son James L. Elia, a junior at the University of Massachusetts Amherst where he is majoring in Biology. Her children were her pride and joy; her love for them was boundless.

In addition to her children, Elizabeth is survived by sister Cornelia Evans, brother-in-law Vladimir Shpitalnik and niece and nephew Alexandra and Liev, and by her brother Thomas Evans, sister-in-law Eliza Oquendo and nephew Sam.

Liz was a passionate woman who loved literature and poetry and who was filled with humor, which she readily shared with all around her. The family asks everyone who knew Liz to keep her in their hearts, remembering her laughter, her keen sense of humor, and her wish that we love generously, live fully, and try to appreciate the beauty of life “every, every minute.”

Services were held at Our Lady of Pompeii Catholic Church on Thursday, June 27th, 2019. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to Hope for Haiti (www.hopeforhaiti.com) to help them continue the work that was so important to Liz.