- Julia Mason Smith Dutton, 90, died peacefully in her sleep on November 30, 2021 at Effie's Place, her assisted living home, less than a mile from her summer home in Leland, Michigan comforted by her children and loving caregivers at Effie's.
Julia was born December 6, 1930 to Francis Alward Smith and Charlotte Benedict Smith in Buffalo, NY. She resided in Buffalo throughout her childhood, attending Elmwood-Franklin School and Buffalo Seminary. Following high school, she attended Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, graduating with the class of 1952 with a BA in both English and German.
On February 7, 1953, Julia married Art Dutton (CDR Arthur Claude Dutton II), from Poughkeepsie, NY. Ironically, Julia and Art first met years earlier in Leland, MI while both were on summer break from their studies at Vassar College and Yale University respectively.
Together, they raised their family of five children, living in Irvington, Fishers, Rochester, and Poughkeepsie, NY. In their later years they moved to Michigan's northwestern lower peninsula, near Julia's childhood summer cottage in Leland, where her family has been vacationing for several generations.
A Girl Scout leader, Sunday School teacher and member of the choir and vestry of Christ Episcopal Church in Poughkeepsie, Julia was strong in her Christian faith, and was kind and loving to all she knew and met. She was a firm believer in natural health and functional medicine and worked with a Poughkeepsie hospital to set up an alternative medicine center. She was trained in the practice of polarity therapy, and provided treatments to help people with physical and emotional difficulties. She put her knowledge and faith into practice to overcome her own cancer twice!
Julia was involved in several community outreach organizations including being a founder and board member of the non-profit People's Housing Development Corporation, and teaching English as a second language to several immigrant families. Passionate about the environment, human rights and social justice, Julia was active in non-profit organizations related to those issues, including crewing on the Hudson River sloop, Clearwater, an environmental organization founded by Pete Seeger to help raise awareness and promote action in cleaning up pollution in the Hudson River. In November, 1984, during the Contra-Sandinista Conflict, she participated with the Witness for Peace organization to witness fair elections in Nicaragua and in 1989, she and a friend raised money to buy a used Mercedes bus, filled it with humanitarian supplies and drove it with the Women's Convoy to Central America. The bus and supplies were delivered to women's organizations across Central America.
Julia enjoyed many sports, including tennis, golf, alpine and cross-country skiing. Since alpine skiing was truly her favorite, she became certified as a Level II ski instructor by Professional Ski Instructors of America (PSIA), teaching blind and disabled students to ski. She skied for the last time when she was 82.
Art and Julia shared a passion for music, singing in several choirs and musical productions. She could often be found at the family piano leading family and friends in song. Together they traveled with the Yale Alumni Chorus (Art's alma mater) and when Art was no longer able to travel, Julia ventured off with the chorus to Russia, England, and South Africa.
Julia and Art were married for 61 years before Art died in 2014. Julia is survived by her children Arthur Claude Dutton III (Wooley), Philip Kimberly Dutton, Amelia Dutton Moore (Steve), Peter Taylor Dutton, and Sarah Dutton Biuso (Gerald), 9 grandchildren and 1 great grandchild.
A memorial service will be held at Christ Episcopal Church in Poughkeepsie, NY during the spring or summer of 2022 followed by a private burial ceremony at the North Cornwall Cemetery in West Cornwall, CT.
Source: https://www.martinson.info/obituaries/Julia-Smith-Dutton?obId=23252449 [1]
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The Duttons of New England
1930 - 2021 (90 years)
Has no ancestors but 5 descendants in this family tree.
[1] 
DUTTON, Arthur Claude "Art" II
