Ilene Wolf Braunstein
April 29, 1952 - March 22, 2025

Ilene Braunstein, 72, of Ansonia, departed this world on March 22 in her home, which she lovingly dubbed "Victory Valley." She refused to succumb to cancer without a battle.

Born Ilene Joyce Braunstein in Newburgh, New York, to Gishtetle "Gussie" Braunstein (nee Zippen) and Samuel Braunstein, who along with her older brother, Mark Shelby Braunstein, predeceased her. She leaves behind her dear cousins, David Grossman of Emeryville, CA, and Frannie Cohn of Simi Valley, California. Ilene was married three times, first and last to Ethan Winer, and to Warren Wolf, in between.

After graduating from Norwalk (CT) High School in 1970, she studied at American Musical and Dramatic Academy in New York, then performed professionally in the New York area and Atlantic City (her favorite role: Mammy Yokum in Li'l Abner), and appeared in the soap opera, Love of Life, an apt metaphor for Ilene. She then graduated magna cum laude from Central Connecticut State University and later earned a Master's Degree in Human Services from the College of New Rochelle.

Ilene was a woman of many talents, foremost among them, writing, her lifelong passion. She wrote professionally for the Hartford Times and other publications, commercially for marketing departments, and personally in her daily journaling, poetry, and essays with clever titles (and sometimes just clever titles awaiting essays). At a women writer's workshop in 1976, she made friendships that lasted decades. She also worked as an artist's model, a dancer, a recreation director for seniors, an adult education instructor, and a counselor, founding the non-profit HEAL, Healing Emotionally Abused Lives, work which also opened the door to many friendships for Ilene, who was a natural "people person."

A fashionista, aka "the Accessory Queen," she was an avid shopper and bargain hunter who knew every thrift store and consignment shop for miles around. Smart, thoughtful, kind and funny, Ilene was an avid walker and hiker, who loved cats, chocolate, cooking, dark rum, donkey figurines, driving fast cars, jewelry, and the UConn Huskies basketball teams. She had season tickets at the Connecticut Open tennis tournament until the earthquake in 2011 shook the bleacher seats so hard it freaked her out. She enjoyed traveling, especially by train. She crisscrossed America more than once, saw the Northern Lights in Canada, honeymooned in Jamaica, and went to Morocco three times, of course, riding a camel there and sleeping under the stars.

As a "parting thought," Ilene recommended you listen to Van Morrison's Into the Mystic. A memorial celebration is anticipated for her birthday in the New Milford area. For details, leave your email address with your Tribute comment at Ilene's page on the the Wakelee Memorial Funeral Home web site. Donations in Ilene’s memory may be made to Whiskers Pet Rescue in Southbury.

--Janet Booth