Grace Lottie Henry
Peacefully at the Charlotte County Hospital on March 27, 2007, Mrs. Grace Lottie (Cook) Henry wife of the late Thomas Edward Henry, of Lincourt Manor, St. Stephen NB and formerly of St. George NB. Born in Back Bay NB on June 1, 1902 she was the daughter of the late Addison and Alice (Cook) Leavitt. A loving grandmother, great grandmother and sister, Grace is survived by one daughter; Patsy Canwel of Edmonton AB, several grandchildren, great grandchildren and great great grandchildren, one sister; Irene (Manford) Cook of Back Bay NB and several nieces, nephews and cousins. She was predeceased by her husband, Thomas, her children; Blanche (Weldon) Paul, Eunice (Fred) Boone, Reecie (Frank) Smith, step daughters; Bessie (Jack) Armstrong, Mary (Jack) Brown and Phyllis (Henry) McGrattan.
Resting at the St. George Funeral Home (755-3533), 26 Portage Street, St. George, NB from where the service will be held from The Gary E. Waycott Memorial Chapel on Thursday at 3 pm with Rev. Gordon Cooke officiating. Interment will take place at the St. George Rural Cemetery. Visiting at the funeral home on Wednesday from 2-4 and 7-9 pm. In Grace’s memory donations to a charity of the donor’s choice would be appreciated by the family.
Deepest gratitude to Jane Lyons and the staff of Lincourt Manor for their excellent and faithful caring.
(www.stgeorgefh.ca)
Charlotte centenarian loved kids
Mike Mullen
Telegraph-Journal
Published Saturday March 31st, 2007
Appeared on page B8
Kindly Charlotte County centenarian Grace (Leavitt) Henry loved the company of children.
Henry, a longtime St. George resident who died at the Lincourt Manor in St. Stephen on Tuesday at 104, not only took on the responsibility of raising her widowed husband's three children and the four from their own marriage, she was also called "Mom" by the three granddaughters who grew up under her roof.
"She loved children very, very much," says one of those granddaughters, retired nurse Ruth Lafferty. "She had to have children all around her all the time."
Henry outlived all of her step-daughters and all but one of her own children - Patsy Canwel of Edmonton. But somehow, says Lafferty, her high-spirited grandmother never lost her zest for living. "Her eyes lit up whenever children came for a visit," she says. "My grandson remembers little ditties she sung to him ... things she would make up." With a mother who lived to 100 and an aunt to 103, Henry seems to have had good genetics. Her survivors include two great-great-great granddaughters in Australia.
Born in Back Bay on June 1, 1902, Grace Lottie Henry was a daughter of the late Addison Leavitt, a fisherman, and his wife, Alice (Cook). She was working at the old Kenmore Inn in St. George when she met widower and granite worker Thomas Henry, some 20 years her senior, whom she married. They established a home near the Magaguadavic Falls. Thomas died at age 82 in 1968, but Grace Henry continued to live on her own until she moved to Pennfield about five years ago.
Lafferty, an infant at the time, says she and her mother moved into her grandmother's home in 1939 because her father had gone off to war. When he returned a stranger seven years later, choosing to fish out of Beaver Harbour, she got to stay with her "Mom" and "Papa" in St. George and go to school.
Grace Henry, she recalls, had a sunny disposition, sharp mind and a love of music which, at times, got her to get up and step-dance for people at birthday parties. She often spoke of going to square dances during her earlier years and loved to attend card parties, often baking her Washington pies as prizes. Henry was also terribly polite. "It was always, 'yes, dear' or 'no, dear' with her," says Lafferty.
In her 80s, Henry got the travel bug, visiting Lafferty - then living in Ontario - and other relatives in western Canada. Escorted from Ridgeview Manor to the Masonic Hall for her 100th birthday celebrations, Henry was inevitably asked to reveal the secret of her long life.
"I just had a very good appetite and took care of myself," she said.