Olivia Yarrow Jenney died on Sept. 21 in Pennington, N.J. She was 96.

Olivia was born in New York City on April 14, 1929 and attended several schools there: Mrs. Glaves Oberlin School, Todhunter School (headed by Marion Dickerman and Eleanor Roosevelt), St. Agatha’s Episcopal School for Girls, a sister school to Trinity School for Boys, where her husband, Ralph, was a student for several years, a coincidence they both enjoyed.

During World War II, her parents, officers in the O.S.S., were attached to the American Embassy in London and she boarded at Friends Academy, Locust Valley, N.Y. After studies at Boston University School of Journalism, she moved to Paris and joined the staff at the United States Embassy as a bilingual secretary for two years.

She returned to New York and helped write speeches for the Dwight D. Eisenhower campaign for President in 1954 and was an advertising copy writer for W.T. Grant & Co.

In 1954, she married David M. Benford, an advertising sales executive with the originating group of Sports Illustrated magazine. They moved to Bryn Mawr, Pa. She headed the kindergarten program and held parent education classes at the Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church and joined a pilot program in Philadelphia as a volunteer teacher in education and housing in conjunction with the University of Pennsylvania. She also helped start an after hours Coffee House in Bryn Mawr for students attending the several colleges on the Main Line.

She moved to New Canaan, Conn. in January of 1964. She joined the New Canaan Community Council’s Committee on Housing and served as a volunteer teacher in the Headstart program in Stamford.

A New Canaan resident for 16 years, her civic activities included membership in the committee researching homes of historic and architectural significance for the New Canaan Historical Society and served as a driver for the Center School Parent-Teacher Council. She was a member of the New Canaan Field Club and the New Canaan Winter Club, and secretary-treasurer of the Democratic Town Committee. She mounted an unsuccessful campaign for town treasurer in 1976. Her marriage to Mr. Benford ended in divorce in 1973.

She was also a member of the New Canaan Board of Realtors from 1968 through 1980. One of the first graduates of the Realtor’s Institute, she was also certified by the University of Connecticut in Real Estate Appraisal, served as a member of the Multiple Listing Committee of the New Canaan Board of Realtors.

She was married September 2, 1978 to Ralph R. Jenney, marketing and operations manager with the Mobil Corporation, at her mother’s home overlooking the Connecticut River in Old Lyme, Conn. The couple moved to McLean, Va. in 1980 when the Mobil Corporation transferred its United States division to the Washington DC area. She joined Merrill Lynch Realtors and retired in 1996.

She and her husband were active in St. John’s Episcopal Church. She was chair of the Transportation Committee of the McLean Citizens Association for several years. She also served on the board of the Greater McLean Republican Women’s Club and was a member of the Fairfax County Republican Committee.

She was the mother of four children: D. Scott Benford, Stephen Yarrow Benford, Melissa Benford Bosted and Edward deJ. Benford; the step-mother of Lucinda Atterbury Jenney, Rafe Atterbury Jenney and Charles Powers Jenney; and the grandmother of Anna Yarrow Bosted, Nicholas James Bosted, Samuel Levente Benford, Maxwell Scott Benford, Hannah Ruth Jenney, Owen Charles Jenney and Marion Gilette Mosely.

Her sister, Sandra Yarrow Rueb, lives in Old Lyme, Conn. Her brothers, Timothy Bernard Yarrow and Andrew Edgar Yarrow, pre-deceased her.

Services will be held at Bigelow Chapel, Mount Auburn Cemetery on Oct. 21. Burial will be private. In lieu of flowers, a memorium may be sent to Womanspace, Inc., 1530 Brunswick Avenue, Lawrenceville, New Jersey 08648 (younitynj.org).