Yolande L. Bronson
Yolande L. Bronson, 65, of Derby, died peacefully on September 12, 2021, at her home surrounded by her loving family.
She was born on May 7, 1956, in Newport to Leonard and Agathe (Audet) Morin. On May 25, 1991, she married Timothy Bronson who survives her.
Yolande graduated from North Country Union High School in Newport in 1974. She later received her associate degree from the Vermont College of Cosmetology in Burlington, Vermont. She is co-owner of MY Salon and Spa and former owner of Ladies and Lords of Newport. Over the years, she was a mentor for new cosmetologist, who began working at the salon.
She loved plants and gardening, being around her pool with family and friends and having a fun day occasionally at the casino. She loved walking around at the July 4 parade in Derby with her Great Dane Leo. She loved her family gatherings, especially Thanksgiving and Christmas.
She is survived by her husband, Timothy Bronson, of Derby; by her children: Timothy Bronson II of Derby, Tara Oeschger and her husband, Scott, of Derby, Gregory Bronson and his fiancé, Ciera Carriere, of Holland, and Christopher Bronson and his wife, Mariah, of Holland; by her siblings: Donald Morin and his wife, Bonnie, of Richmond, Gilles Morin of Holland, Richard Morin and his wife, Helen, of Morgan, Rene Morin of Holland, Mark Morin of Derby, Celine Rathe and her husband, Eddie, of Colchester, Gerald Morin and his wife, Caroline, of Merrimack, New Hampshire, Andre Morin of Holland, and John Morin of Holland, numerous nieces, nephews, cousins, aunts and uncles.
She was predeceased by her brothers, Claude and Norman Morin, and by her parents.
Friends may call on Monday, September 20, at the Curtis-Britch and Bouffard Funeral Home, 4670 Darling Hill Road, Newport from 5 to 8 p.m. Funeral services will be held at 11 a.m. on Tuesday, September 21, at St. Edward’s Catholic Church in Derby Line where a Mass of Christian burial will be celebrated. Should friends desire, contributions in her memory may be made to the Mary Wright Halo Foundation, 1073 Upper Quarry Road, Newport, Vermont 05855.
Online condolences at curtis-britch.com.
Yves Avila Daigle
Yves Daigle, 89, of Westfield died with family by his side on September 7, 2021. He leaves behind a family and a community that loved him dearly and will long miss his big presence in this world. He was one of a kind.
Yves was a civic-minded man who spent decades serving the town of Westfield, first as a library trustee, then 52 years as a selectman. In his retirement years, he ran the town’s recycling center (he turned Saturday recycling into the week’s social event) and dug graves. He collected cans and cashed them in to support the playground he initiated. He collected aluminum can tabs for the Shriners to help pay for patient care. In his eighties, he took computer classes and got an iPad so he could conduct town business in the twenty-first century. And he mowed lawns — his own, the library’s, the cemetery’s, even the lawn at an abandoned house, so no piece of Westfield would look unsightly if he could help it.
He collapsed doing what he loved — working — specifically mowing the lawn on his beater of a riding mower. He had a new one but preferred the old one, which lacked a hood and resembled something out of an apocalypse film. Despite a daughter’s, son-in-law’s, and first responders’ efforts at CPR, he never regained consciousness and died two days later, hanging on well beyond expectations.
His parents, Leo and Marie Laure (Carrier) Daigle, moved to Westfield from Quebec and started Daigle’s General Store. It included a barber shop, a grain business, hardware, groceries — about anything a person needed to buy. When Yves was still in his teens his father sent him to Montreal to learn how to be a barber, whether he wanted to be one or not.
At 20, he married Hilda Willis, and six days later was shipped out for a two-year stint in the Korean War, where he worked as a medic. He always joked that, for the first two years of marriage, he and his wife got along great. Actually, they got along well enough for the rest of the years that, in December of this year, they would have celebrated their sixty-ninth wedding anniversary.
He went back to working in the store when he returned from service, but what he really wanted to do was be a dairy farmer. In the 1960s he bought a farm on the Loop Road in Westfield. That venture got off to a rough start when, not long after purchase, the barn burned down. The milkers were driven up the road to a smaller farm that his father still owned. Later, there was a fire at that barn, too, and he was badly burned trying to get back into the hay barn to save his youngest daughter, who was there to do CPR the day he collapsed.
Over time, he built up a legendary herd of purebred Holsteins and a reputation for being one of the best farmers around. He was so particular that his oldest daughter remembers having to demonstrate to every new hired hand precisely how to spread sawdust in a cow’s stall.
Eventually, his wife, Hilda, put the place up for sale, and they “retired,” moving to a house in Westfield Village, where Yves took on more jobs for the town. He’s been on WCAX’s Channel 3 news twice as a featured “Super Senior.” He was recently honored through a legislative resolution for his community service — several legislators presented him with the resolution, which, among other things, noted that he was likely the longest-serving select board member in Vermont. The Shriners also recognized him for providing over 300,000 tabs to their program.
Above all, however, he loved his family. Yves and Hilda’s home has long been the hub of family activity, and any given day will see a revolving door of family members. Nothing interested him more, or made him prouder, than hearing about the lives of his daughters, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. From cheering on grandkids at sporting events, to spearheading home renovations for his daughters, he led his life with purpose and unparalleled commitment to those he loved.
He leaves behind his wife, Hilda; his three daughters: Tena Starr of Glover and her partner, Steve Maleski, and her son’s father and daughter’s stepfather, Erik Porter, Mary Lee Daigle of Westfield, and Kelli and Scott Dean of Westfield; his grandchildren: Lara Starr and her partner, Grant Reed, and the fathers of her children, Jason Belisle of Westfield and Dave Heath of Newport Center, Hannah Dean and her fiancé, Anthony Andronico, of Quincy, Massachusetts, Jeremy Dean of Westfield, Walker Farley and his partner, Desiree Ouellet, of Westfield, and Colton Porter of Glover and his partner, Michelle Adkins, of Dallas, Texas; and his great-grandchildren: Garrett Heath and Grason, Mabel, and Maverick Belisle of Westfield. He also leaves behind five siblings: Louis Daigle and his wife, Sandy, Monique Temple and her husband, Allyn, Jeannine Tayler and her husband, Bernard, Jacques Daigle and his wife, Theresa, and Laurette Lewis and her husband, Jim. He also leaves his good friends Norman Piette, Todd Mory, and Frank McAllister, and many more.
He was predeceased by eight other siblings: Joseph, Charlie, Jackie, Norman, Conrad, Norbert, Bobby, and Louise.
He was a man of many talents. In his younger years, he played guitar and harmonica. Besides being a legendary farmer, he was an excellent carpenter and woodworker, and most members of the family have a lovely piece of furniture he made or refinished. He was always busy.
We will Mass his humor, his quirkiness, his hard work, and his willingness to give to us and to his spot in the world. He was a good and beloved man who always had a joke, a story, and a smile.
A funeral mass was held at the Catholic church in Troy on Tuesday, September 14. It was followed by a military honors ceremony at the Westfield cemetery, then a reception at the parish hall in Troy.
In lieu of flowers, please honor Yves with a contribution to the Jay Westfield Elementary School Sports Program. Checks can be made out to Jay Westfield School, and all donations should be sent to 257 Revoir Flat Road, Jay, Vermont 05859.
Eleanor Bell Ingram Gavin
Eleanor “Ellie” Bell Ingram Gavin died in Eugene, Oregon, on August 29 at the age of 81.
Ellie was born on November 12, 1939, in Boston, Massachusetts, to Captain Henry Allison Ingram and Helen Pfaltz Ingram.
Her father’s various Navy posts moved their family across the country twice, settling in Hingham, Massachusetts. There she attended Hingham High School, sailed competitively with her sister Allison and graduated from Northfield Mount Hermon in 1957.
While visiting Europe with her parents in 1959, Ellie decided to enter the La Source School of Nursing, in Lausanne, Switzerland, from which she graduated in April 1963. Ellie and Paul H. Gavin, whom she met in the choir of the Lausanne Cathedral, where they both sang, were married in May of 1963.
Ellie loved “beautiful Switzerland.” During her seven years there she enjoyed the Alps, musical concerts, and a closely knit group of friends and family.
Ellie and Paul moved to Connecticut in 1966, where they raised three sons. In those years she enjoyed gardening, teaching her sons how to ski in their small backyard, making jelly with crabapples from the tree in the front yard and grapes from the hillside, singing with Paul in church choirs, managing music lessons for her sons, and travelling around the northeast to cheer on her sons in their rowing events.
She modeled a strong work ethic, an appreciation for the arts and the natural world, and a project-filled, active life. She valued opportunities to help others and sought them out. She worked as a registered nurse, volunteered as a life-skills assistant to Hmong (Laotian) refugees, and volunteered in the Hartford Courts as a French (Creole) translator for Haitian immigrants. She studied chemistry at Trinity College Hartford and at the University of Connecticut where she developed a strong interest in the geology of the northeast and earned a BS degree. In the 1980s she worked tirelessly for the nuclear weapons freeze campaign, and led the nuclear weapons freeze organization in Simsbury, Connecticut. This work led to work supporting nuclear disarmament NGOs at the United Nations, and preparing extensive English-French translations on the topic for French-speaking diplomats. As her sons left for college, she and Paul opened their home to people starting new lives in the USA.
In 2002, Ellie and Paul retired to a home they designed and built with their sons in northeastern Vermont. There, she continued to garden, sail, and appreciate the seasons and beauty of northern New England.
She was active with the Northwoods Stewardship Center and the Derby Line Unitarian Universalist Church. She was very active in the New England Coalition on Nuclear Pollution’s successful grass-roots movement to close the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant.
Following the passing of Paul in 2017, she remained at home in Vermont for another year, supported in her progressing dementia by compassionate caregivers. In 2018, she moved to residential memory care close to her son in Eugene, Oregon. The family is extremely grateful to the staff of Love Is in Craftsbury, Vermont, and Quail Crest in Eugene.
Ellie is remembered as a fine friend, and a valiant woman who always fought for what she believed in.
She is survived by her sons: Henri Gavin (Robin Magee) of Durham, North Carolina, Marc (Gwyneth McConnell) of Seattle, Washington, and Daniel (Melanie Knoradi) of Eugene, Oregon; and grandchildren: Benjamin, Eric, Meredith, Ingrith, and Leo Gavin; siblings: John Ingram (Tamar Gisis) of New York City, and Allison David of Florida; nieces: Caroline Hillkirk, Katherine Schexneider, and Lise Rosenthal; and nephews: Mattan Ingram, Miles Ingram, and Stewart Ingram.
She was predeceased by husband, Paul Gavin; brother Victor Ingram; nephews: Hank Ingram and Geoffrey Herbert; and niece Aviva Rosenthal.
A life celebration is being planned for October 16 in East Charleston.
SERVICES
Barbara Carrier
A graveside service for Barbara Carrier will be held at 11 a.m. on Saturday, September 18, at St. Paul’s Catholic Cemetery in Barton.
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