2026 Alice Paul Legacy in Action Awards

Contemporary Honoree: Suzanne Benton 

Suzanne Benton is a pioneering feminist artist, activist, and cultural catalyst whose seven decades of creative work and civic engagement have shaped conversations about gender, art, and equity both locally and internationally. A central figure in Connecticut’s Second Wave Women’s Movement, Suzanne has long worked at the intersection of art and advocacy, using her welded metal masks, performance, and public action to challenge injustice and amplify women’s voices in 32 countries worldwide.

Her activism began in the mid-1960s, when she spoke in schools, churches, and community groups throughout Ridgefield and the tri-state area, introducing feminist ideas to audiences encountering them for the first time. Deeply engaged in the consciousness-raising movement, she was part of a groundbreaking women’s group whose sessions were later published by Swallow Press in the 1973 book Unmasking: Ten Women in Metamorphosis, edited by Valerie Harms — an early chronicle of feminist self-examination and transformation.

As a longtime Ridgefield resident, Suzanne has been a strong force for civic change. She helped lead the effort to stop the Danbury News-Times from segregating its classified advertisements by sex, a practice that reinforced workplace discrimination. She founded and organized the first two Connecticut chapters of NOW (National Organization for Women) and established Connecticut Feminists in the Arts, creating platforms for women’s leadership and creative expression. As president of the Western Connecticut chapter of NOW, she catalyzed Metamorphosis I, a landmark women’s art festival in New Haven that brought feminist art into public view at a pivotal cultural moment.

In 1976, Suzanne embarked on a year-long journey to 14 countries as a feminist mask-maker and performance artist, launching an international career marked by residencies, exhibitions, and cross-cultural exchange. Her honors include a Fulbright grant to India and residencies at institutions including Harvard University.

Her local impact has been equally significant. She supported Lillian Moorhead’s historic 1973 election as Ridgefield’s first female Selectman and helped spur the formation of the Ridgefield Women’s Political Caucus, whose legal advocacy led to the Ridgefield Boys Club becoming the Boys & Girls Club, expanding access for girls in the community.

In 2017, Suzanne received the Pinellas County ACLU Civil Liberties Award for founding and leading the Women’s Solidarity March in St. Petersburg, Florida, which drew 30,000 participants. In 2020, she organized the Women’s Suffrage 100th Anniversary Portrait Project, commissioning 23 regional artists to create portraits of women serving in Ridgefield’s Town Hall, an exhibition that remains on display today.

Now at age 90, Suzanne continues to create, exhibit, and perform, while completing her memoir, The Spirit of Hope: The Life of a Traveling Artist. Through fearless activism and boundary-breaking art, she has left an enduring imprint on Ridgefield and far beyond.

Contemporary Honoree: Ellen Burns 

Ellen Burns is a civic leader, environmental advocate, and longtime Ridgefield community volunteer whose decades of public service have helped shape and preserve the character of her adopted hometown. Born and raised in New Jersey — a lifelong Springsteen fan and lifelong Democrat — Ellen built her professional career in accounting while dedicating her personal life to protecting open space and strengthening civic institutions.

After earning a BS in Accounting from Montclair State University in 1976 and an MS in Taxation from Western Connecticut State University in 1978, Ellen received her CPA certification in 1979 and worked in public and private accounting until her retirement in 2017. In 2004, she and her husband, Darwin Ellis, purchased Books on the Common, a beloved independent bookstore that will celebrate its 42nd anniversary this year.

A Ridgefield resident since 1982, Ellen has been deeply involved in town and neighborhood leadership, with a particular passion for land conservation. Her proudest achievement was leading the successful three-year effort to preserve the 480-acre property now known as Bennett’s Pond State Park. In 1998, she co-founded the Ridgefield Open Space Association (ROSA) to prevent the land from being developed. Through determined grassroots organizing and community collaboration, the property was permanently protected in 2002 and became one of Ridgefield’s two state parks. She later co-founded Friends of Bennett’s Pond to ensure its continued stewardship.

Ellen’s civic leadership extends across numerous boards and commissions. She was appointed by the Board of Selectmen to serve on the Schlumberger Citizens Committee (2015–2016), served as Vice Chairman of the Ridgefield Charter Revision Commission (2017–2018), and has served on the Ridgefield Parking Authority since 2017. Her additional volunteer service includes Treasurer and Board Member of Woodcock Nature Center (1990–1994), President of the Fox Hill Lake Association (1986–2006), Board Member of the Ridgefield Guild of Artists (1990–1991), and Board Member and Treasurer of the Fox Hill Lake Association since 2021.

Her dedication to environmental preservation and civic life has been widely recognized. She received the Connecticut Secretary of the State Public Service Award in 2002, the Garden Club of America Award in 2005, the Ridgefield Conservation Commission’s Edith Meffley Environmental Award in 2007, and a 2014 Connecticut Fund for the Environment award honoring the members of ROSA for saving the Bennett’s Pond property. In 2023, she received the Ridgefield Cultural District Award, and in 2025 was named the first “Icon” by the Keeler Tavern Museum & History Center.

Through her professional rigor, environmental advocacy, and steadfast commitment to community service, Ellen Burns has left an enduring imprint on Ridgefield’s civic and natural landscape, ensuring that the town’s open spaces, institutions, and spirit will endure for generations to come.

Legacy Honoree: Katharine Houghton Hepburn

Katharine Martha Houghton Hepburn (February 2, 1878 – March 17, 1951) was a pioneering American feminist, social reformer, and political activist whose leadership helped shape the final push for women’s suffrage and the early birth control movement. Known to family and friends as “Kit,” she served as president of the Connecticut Woman Suffrage Association before joining Alice Paul’s National Woman’s Party, aligning herself with the more militant wing of the suffrage campaign. She was the mother of Academy Award–winning actress Katharine Hepburn and the grandmother of actress Katharine Houghton.

Born in Buffalo, New York, to Caroline Garlinghouse Houghton and Alfred Augustus Houghton of the Corning glass fortune, Hepburn was raised in a progressive household that valued intellectual independence and women’s education. After her father’s suicide and her mother’s death from cancer during Hepburn’s adolescence, she clung fiercely to her mother’s insistence that her daughters receive a rigorous college education. Despite resistance from conservative family members, Hepburn graduated from Bryn Mawr College in 1899 with a degree in history and political science and earned a master’s degree the following year.

Her reform work began in earnest in 1909 when she co-founded the Hartford Equal Franchise League. The organization became part of the Connecticut Woman Suffrage Association (CWSA), and Hepburn rose to its presidency. In 1913, she represented Connecticut in a deputation to President Woodrow Wilson urging support for women’s suffrage and hosted British suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst during her visit to Hartford.

In 1917, frustrated with what she saw as the cautious approach of mainstream suffrage leadership, Hepburn resigned from the CWSA and joined Alice Paul’s National Woman’s Party. Paul later described her as the “unquestioned leader” of Connecticut suffragists. Hepburn served as legislative chairman of the Party’s National Executive Committee, working to secure passage of what became the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920. After ratification, she declined an invitation from Democratic leaders to run for the U.S. Senate.

Hepburn then turned her energy to birth control reform alongside Margaret Sanger. In 1923, she founded the Connecticut branch of the American Birth Control League, which later evolved into Planned Parenthood. As chair of the National Committee on Federal Legislation for Birth Control, she lobbied Congress to allow physicians to distribute contraceptive information. Though legislative victories were slow, her disciplined leadership and public advocacy helped normalize a once-taboo cause.

Throughout her life, Katharine Hepburn embodied disciplined activism, intellectual conviction, and an unwavering commitment to women’s autonomy; principles that echoed across generations.