Edna Loretta Fraser

Edna Loretta Fraser, 85, passed away on May 3, 2019 at her home in Carriage Green, Milford, Connecticut.  She is the daughter of Mary Loretta Gaunya Fraser and Edmund Rida Fraser, both deceased. A celebration of life to honor Edna is in the process of being planned by her 3 siblings on a date yet to be determined. Edna was born July 29, 1933 in New Haven, Connecticut.  She attended West Haven High School and has undergraduate and graduate degrees from New Haven Teachers College, now Southern Connecticut State College. For 33 years after graduating from college, she was employed by the Milford School System, retiring in 1992 as the Athletic Director of Foran High School. Among her many achievements as a teacher, coach, administrator and athletic director, she founded the girls interscholastic athletic program at Foran High School. Shortly after her retirement, Foran honored Edna's long-term service by dedicating it's then newly constructed gymnasium as the "Edna L. Fraser Gymnasium". Edna always loved sports and competition. She attended high school and college in the late 1940's and early 1950's. At that time, schools, statewide and nationally, did not offer competitive interscholastic athletic programs for females. The gender culture while Edna was attending school was that interscholastic sports were for males --- not females. Females were offered the opportunity, primarily for exercise purposes, to engage in intramural athletic activities whereby females would compete against their own classmates. Early in her career, Edna experienced genuine gender inequality which nurtured her desire and drive to elevate female opportunities in sports and education to a much higher level. She became a strong and recognized advocate for the adoption and enforcement of Title IX, federal legislation which purported to pave a path leading to gender equality in athletics and education. At the urging of many of her female students, she persistently fought the prevailing gender biased culture in an effort to obtain equitable opportunities for females in athletics and other areas where gender equality was lacking. Edna continued advocating gender equality in her retirement years by writing a book in 2013 entitled: A Level Playing Field, a book about gender equality and the impact of Title IX on female athletics. During her 33 years of service with the Milford School System, Edna was an integral part of the world champion Raybestos Brakettes women's fast pitch softball team. She played center field for the Brakettes for 12 years. Not only did the Brakettes win many national fast pitch softball titles, but in 1965 the Brakettes team was selected to represent the United States on a good-will tour with visits to Australia, Holland, Hong Kong, Taiwan, India, Germany and the Philippines. In recognition of her leadership efforts both on and off the field, Edna had been honored with many significant accolades and sports awards, including the Connecticut Sports Writers Alliance Gold Key Award, Connecticut High School Coaches Hall of Fame, and the National High School Athletic Coaches Award for Softball. In the mid 1990’s, Edna survived a complicated brain aneurysm and resulting surgical procedures which altered her living and life objectives. However, she continued to be a faithful supporter of the Brakettes and U-Conn's women's basketball, attending many of their games with her cousin and good friend, Barbara Gaunya Bourdeau. Edna is survived by her brother Bob Fraser, his wife, Barbara, and their four children: Kim Fraser Sweet, Kara Fraser, Bob Fraser Jr, and Kris Fraser Austin; her sister, Charlotte Fraser England, her husband, Bill England, and their four children: John "Jefe" England, Deborah England Gray, Mary "Liz" England, and Jim England; and her sister, Diane Fraser, her significant other, Dennis Morgan, and Diane's daughter, Kellie Salito.  In addition to her siblings and nieces and nephews, but an intricate part of her life, Edna's other survivors include 15 great nieces and nephews. In lieu of flowers, donations or anything else of a material nature, Edna most likely will be looking down from above to read online comments from her many relatives, friends and acquaintances, comments which can be relayed to Edna through posts on Cody-White's website at www.codywhitefuneralservice.com.           

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