Eleanor Rose Gauvreau
January 3, 1936 ~ December 2, 2023
Resided in:
Sanford, Maine
SPRINGVALE-- Eleanor Gauvreau, 87, of Springvale, died peacefully on Saturday December 2, 2023 at The Gosnell Memorial House in Scarborough.
She was born in Bellows Falls, Vermont on January 3, 1936, the daughter of the late Dana and Hazel (Bedaw) Grignon. In 1941, the family moved to Connecticut and settled in Winsor Locks. Eleanor graduated from Hillyer College in 1954 with an Associate’s Degree in Medical Science. She went on to graduate from the University of Oklahoma in 1956 with a degree in Medical Biology. In 1960 she met and married Donald J. Gauvreau. They were married for twelve years. Her oldest daughter, Lori, was born in Connecticut in 1961 and the family moved to Maine in 1962. They lived on Mousam Lake in Shapleigh. Her youngest daughter, Lisa, was born in 1963. After her divorce, Eleanor went back to school and graduated with a degree in Chemistry from the College of Saint Francis. She worked as a chemist for American Cyanamid for 15 Years. She then worked at Webber Hospital/Southern Maine Medical Center for over twenty years as a Cytologist. She retired in 2002.
Eleanor enjoyed playing the piano, skiing and could be seen driving in her Triumph TR3 after college. She loved to dress up and attend parties. She was a fiercely independent woman. She was a single mother who raised her two daughters with the help of her family and friends. She enjoyed gardening, cooking and canning. She loved animals, shopping and jewelry. She liked to travel to Michigan and Oklahoma to visit friends as well as to Old Orchard Beach to spend time with a close friend.
In 2016 she lost her beloved sister Dorothy Trombley of Keene NH. In 2014 Dorothy’s husband Richard Trombley passed away.
Eleanor is survived by her daughters, Lori Gauvreau of Shapleigh and Lisa Thoresen and her husband Eric of West Newfield; her nephew, Richard Trombley, Jr. of Keene, NH and niece, Carol Marshall and her husband James of Concord, NH, as well as several cousins, Thom and Scott Marshall and their families in New Hampshire.
In memory of our mother please donate to the Gosnell Memorial Hospice House, 11 Hunnewell Road, Scarborough, ME 04074
A graveside service will be held at the Notre Dame Cemetery in Springvale on Friday December 15 at 11:00 am.
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Missing you on your birthday! Love you so much! Lisa & Eric
Mom, I’m sorry that I didn’t keep up with my visits and that I kind of lost track of you. I drove by your place many many times wondering where you were.
Love just about everything.. She was just an all around amazing person.
Just being who she was and supporting her daughters and her friends.
Her strength…
You know she was an amazing person and always there full of support
Lisa and Lori
I am so very sorry to hear of the loss of mum. She was such a beautiful lovely person and I fell in love with her the first day that I met her. Thank you both for sharing her with me. She always looked after all of us.
I’m so sorry
I met this beautiful woman back when I went to school with our daughter, lisa.
She certainly a person that I am never, ever gonna forget. And I never have i’ve always kept her in my heart. I knew something was wrong when I got a return Christmas card last year. I thought she had already .. Love you mom g
She always made sure we were safe. She took our keys the minute we walked through the door..
Respect.
Letting me pass out underneath the table with her dog.