Betty Hill of Hamden, a formerhigh schoolteacher and a longtime peace activist,died on January 19, 2015, Martin Luther King Day, at the age of 94.A coal miner's daughter,she wasbelieved to be one of the first girls from herareain western Pennsylvania to go to college, at Bluffton Universityin Ohio. Her family got help from Quaker and Mennonite missionaries in the coal mining region, and she herself went on to serve as a missionarywith Mennonites in Paraguay from 1945 to 1947. Onher return,a young ice cream advertising man having lunch at a café inUniontown, Pennsylvania,saw her picture in the local newspaperand told his waitress: "I'm going to marry that girl." Indeed, he wooed her and won her,and they marriedthree months later on June 21,1947.Her faith and her drive to serve inspired him to become a Methodist minister.Rev. George G. Hill and Betty togethercampaigned for civil rights, peace and social justice until his deathin 1988. Betty continued, and traveled to Nicaragua, Cuba, Israel and Vietnam, among other places, in her passionate, faith-based advocacy of peace, fairness and friendship.Betty taught atseveral public schools, including inHartford and Norwalk, Connecticut.Sheand George – and then she alone – treasured summers at their "little red cottage" inAlstead, New Hampshire, finding fellowship and good contra dancing in thecommunity there.Even in her last years, when she lived with Alzheimer's, hergoodness, wit, andlove of dancesparkled through.She is survived by three children – Gary (Kathy Tiddens) of New York City; Kay (Mitchell Morse, d.), of Hamden; and Steve (Elizabeth) of Avon. Shealso leavesfour grandchildren –Elizabeth, Chris, Peter and Lily – and five great-grandchildren. She was the daughter of William Keeney and Kathryn Echard Keeney, and the sister of William (d.), Eleanor (d.), Joan, Marion, and Martha.

Calling hours will be held SUNDAY, January 25from 12 to 2 p.m. at Hawley Lincoln Memorial Funeral Home,493 Whitney Ave, New Haven.Burial will be private in GroveStreet Cemetery. Donations in honor of Elizabeth Keeney Hill can be made to the annual Keeney Peace Lecture at www.bluffton.edu/giving, or to the New Haven León Sister City Project at www.newhavenleon.org.