Rachel Marie Gagnon

Rachel Marie Gagnon (née Ayotte)

Rachel M. Gagnon passed away peacefully on June 7th, in the home she shared with her daughter Lorraine on Bird Key, in Sarasota, Florida.

She was born in Nashua, New Hampshire on June 22, 1926 and was educated in the French Catholic schools there. She graduated from St. Louis de Gonzague High school in 1944 and met the love of her life and lifelong best friend, Gerard L. Gagnon in the fall of 1945. She and Gerard were married in the summer of 1946, and began their family in the fall of 1947. They raised five children, Lorraine born in 1947, Denise in 1950, Geraldine in 1952, Paulette in 1955 and Edward in 1957.

Rachel, or Rae, as she was known to Gerard, was a most loving wife and mother to her family and a trusted partner to her husband on the family farm they had in Nashua. Together they enjoyed their family and worked hard to make their farm flourish. They enjoyed the wonderful woods that were a part of the farm, and the horses they had to explore those woods. Rachel lost her beloved Gerard too soon to cancer in 1987.

After her loss she continued to focus on her home and her family, and her love of gardening gave her many happy hours in her greenhouse. The flowers she grew made her home even more beautiful, as did the pool she loved and the shady porch where she loved to spend time.

Family always came first with Rachel, and she spent many happy years traveling to visit her children, located from San Francisco to Ohio, New York and Massachusetts and New Hampshire. She loved these visits, and the time spent with her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. She was a wonderful grandmother and great grandmother and a source of fun and good memories for each of them.

She loved the beach and spent many happy times at Hampton Beach in New Hampshire, and Cape Cod and Nantucket in Massachusetts.

As the years passed her traveling lessened and she moved to Ipswich, Massachusetts first and then to Sarasota, Florida where she and her daughter Lorraine first shared a condo on Longboat Key and then their home on Bird Key.

She is survived by her daughters Lorraine Keady (partner Jim Walters), Denise Hamedy (partner Kevin Putnam) Geraldine O’Meara (husband Brian), Paulette March (partner Dave Harris) and Ed Gagnon (wife Josephine). She is also survived by her grandchildren and their spouses Tim and Melissa, Nate and Olivia, Kelly and partner Joe, Gerard, and Alex and Ashley, and great grandchildren Autumn, Austin, Elyas, Nora, Thea, and Simone and several nieces and nephews.

Her family will always remember her for her loving spirit, her sense of fun and for her loving and practical wisdom. She will be sorely missed and always dearly loved.

Arrangements are private but Rachel loved flowers and flowers can be sent to the Rochette Funeral home at 21 Kinsley Street in Nashua or donations can be made to the Dementia Society of America or the Gerard L. Gagnon Healing Garden at the St. Joseph Hospital Oncology Center in Nashua, New Hampshire.

To send flowers to the family or plant a tree in memory of Rachel Marie Gagnon, please visit our floral store.