Arlene Elizabeth Chambers Balser, the first woman to work as a sworn member of the West Hartford Police Department, died at her home in Florida on Saturday, July 13, 2013. She was 90.
According to a release issued by the West Hartford Police Department, Balser was the first woman "with full arrest powers." She had a 25-year career with the department, from 1959 until 1985, in the Youth Services Division. According to the release, she had received special training in sexual assault and child abuse investigations.
Balser, who previously served as a nurse cadet during World War II, saw the announcement about the position with the West Hartford Police Department and was the only one to apply for the job according to the release.
Because she was the only woman in the department, Balser used to arrive at work dressed in street clothes – a dress and high heels – with her badge hidden in her purse, because then-chief Vincent Hurlbert didn't want "every shoplifter in town" to know what his only police woman looked like, according to a report in the Hartford Courant.
According to her obituary, Balser was the wife of the late William J. Balser and the late Wyllis J. Swartz. She was born on May 14, 1923, in Windham Center, the daughter of the late Homer W. and Lillian Rathburn Chamberlin.
Balser is survived by her sons, Reid W. Swartz and his wife, Wendy, of Fort Myers, FL; and Richard W. Balser and his wife, Sharon, of Manchester; her sister Grace Kingsbury of Manchester, NH; her sister Verna Phillips and husband Edward of East Windsor; and her sister-in-law Mildred of Willimantic; as well as five grandchildren and two great grandchildren. She was pre-deceased by her brother, Wallace, of Willimantic.
Balser's funeral will be this Friday at 11 a.m. at Sheehan Hillborn Funeral Home, 1084 New Britain Ave., West Hartford, with burial to follow in Fairview Cemetary.
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