Elizabeth Florence Margaret Babiy Bennett
March 12, 1929 ~ June 13, 2025
Born in:
Ithaca, New York
Resided in:
Ashland City, Tennessee
Elizabeth Florence Margaret Babiy Bennett, born in Ithaca, New York on March 12, 1929 to the late Dr. and Mrs. Paul Peter Babiy (Edith), passed away on June 13, 2025, in Ashland City, TN, while in the care of her loving family. She was ninety-six years old.
Elizabeth, better known as “Tilli” to family, and as “Bobbi” to friends, enjoyed growing up wandering the campus of Cornell University in Ithaca, where her father was a professor in the Entomology department for sixteen years.
She and her family moved to Austria, her father’s birthplace, when she was twelve. Tilli remained there for six years before returning to Ithaca to join her older sister. There she worked in a library at Cornell University and met her future husband, Mel Bennett, a civil engineering student at Cornell. They married following Mel’s graduation from Cornell in 1949, and were together for fifty-nine years before Mel’s passing in 2008.
During their years together, Bobbi and Mel moved several times for Mel‘s work, living in Colorado, New York, Tennessee, New Jersey and Missouri.
When a special job opportunity in Greenland materialized for Mel, Bobbi, four months pregnant with their second child, packed up their eighteen month-old daughter and moved to Salzburg, Austria, for nine months to spend time with her parents while Mel worked in Greenland.
Upon their return to the United States, Bobbi and Mel settled in Newburgh, New York where they lived for thirteen years before moving three times in the next five years for Mel’s job.
During this time, Bobbi was busy raising a family of four children which became five. At the age of forty-two, she had her fifth child, or “bonus baby.” The other children were twenty, eighteen, sixteen and fourteen years old, respectively, at that time.
Bobbi was always involved in her community no matter where she lived, volunteering at many schools, children’s homes, churches, art associations, libraries and various clubs. She was a Scout leader, taught needlepoint classes, enjoyed cooking, sewing, knitting, painting and always had a lovely garden. She also enjoyed playing bridge with friends. She loved to travel and never met a stranger.
She loved to read and do crossword puzzles and when macular degeneration took her eyesight, she still enjoyed listening to audio books on her iPad. She might have two or three books downloaded at the same time: a historical novel, a mystery, a romance or an autobiography.
Bobbi enjoyed learning. She was fluent in two languages, attended junior college classes after the birth of her fifth child, and was someone you’d like to have on your team in Trivial Pursuit. She knew something about everything and could answer almost any question asked. Bobbi’s hope was to leave the world a better place for having been here and she accomplished that. She was an amazing woman, wife and mother.
When Mel retired from DuPont in 1980, the couple spent their summers together at their cottage on the Iroquois Hunting & Fishing Club in New York State from 1982 until Mel had a stroke in 1999. During those summers Bobbi and Mel enjoyed swimming, hiking, picking blueberries, hosting their children, grandchildren and countless friends at their cottage. Bobbi also enjoyed making delicious blueberry jam at the cottage which was enjoyed by all.
The couple moved to Ashland City in 1994 to be closer to family. While there, Bobbi was a member of the Ashland City United Methodist Church and sang in the choir, served on the Advisory Board of the Ashland City Senior Center, was involved with Friends of the Library, and continued to be a member of the Iroquois Hunting & Fishing Club.
Following Mel’s stroke in 1999, Bobbi was his constant companion and loving caregiver for nine years until he passed away in 2008. In addition to her husband and parents, she was predeceased by her sister, Edith Kingsley, and her brother, Peter Babiy.
Bobbi is survived by five children, Ellen Dent (Dennis Cravens) of Columbia, Missouri, Fred Bennett of Ashland City, Glenn (Rita) Bennett of League City, Texas, Joanne (Angelo) Formosa of Nashville, Tennessee and Christopher (Maureen) Bennett of Lake Forest, Illinois, as well as nine grandchildren, Shawn (Stephanie), Kat (Oleg), Michael (Jerrico), Jessica (Kirby), Stephen (Victoria), Rachel (Garrett), Michael, Avery, and Luke, and thirteen great-grandchildren.
A memorial service will be held at the Ashland City United Methodist Church, 2226 Oak St. Ashland City on Monday, October 20 at 10:30 AM. There will be a private burial service in the Middle Tennessee Veterans Cemetery in Pegram.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Bobbi’s memory to the Ashland City United Methodist Church, to the Cheatham County Library, 188 John Mayfield Drive, Ashland City, 37015, or to a charity of your choosing.
Services
Memorial Service: October 20, 2025 10:30 am
Ashland City United Methodist Church
2226 Oak St.
Ashland City, TN 37015
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A wonderful, thoughtful, and kind aunt, and sister to my father. I loved her phone calls and our conversations, and will miss her greatly.