LEWISTON – The friends of Clara Leonard were not surprised Thursday when they learned what the 58-year-old woman was doing when she was killed.

Leonard had stopped to help an injured dog on Lisbon Street when she was struck by a car, police said. It was dark and raining at the time.

“That’s typical Clara,” said longtime friend Donna Knightly of Oxford. “Whether it was a person or a dog or a bird, she was willing to do anything she could to help. Her heart went out to everybody.”

Leonard was struck about 4:45 a.m. at Lisbon and Westminster streets, police said. She was crossing Lisbon Street when she was struck by a car driven by 39-year-old Nelly Robitaille of Auburn.

Investigators said darkness and the weather contributed to the crash. Leonard had stopped her own car to attend to the yellow Labrador named Cuda, which had been struck by a car moments earlier.

Nobody was surprised that Leonard was willing to lend a hand, even on a wet and raw morning, after a long night at work.

“That’s the kind of person she was,” said Trudy Stevens of Otisfield, another friend of Leonard’s. “She would go out of her way to help someone who needed help. She had a heart of gold.”

The dog, owned by a Scribner Boulevard couple, had escaped from an open porch and run into Lisbon Street, police said. Cuda suffered a wound to its paw and was taken to an animal clinic.

The dog was taken first to the Animal Emergency Clinic of Mid-Maine on Strawberry Avenue where it was treated for its wound. The dog was later transferred to the Lisbon Road Animal Hospital, where its owners picked it up Thursday night.

Robitaille, who was delivering Sun Journal newspapers from her car at the time of the wreck, was not charged.

Leonard was on her way home after working the night shift at Dunkin’ Donuts on Lisbon Street, friends said. A cancer survivor, she was a hard worker who had raised two sons on her own, friends said.

“She had a rough life, but she really brought herself up,” Knightly said. “She had a lot of pep. She was always jolly. You always had a good time when Clara was around.”

News about Leonard’s death was spreading through the Oxford community Thursday afternoon. Members of the local firefighters auxiliary remembered Leonard as a tireless worker who helped raise money during her 15 years with that outfit.

Leonard lived on Airport Road, where she remodeled a mobile home herself and then constructed a garage.

“She could do most anything,” Knightly said. “She could do carpentry work or anything else that needed to be done.”

“She was the kind of person who never asked for help for herself,” Stevens said. “But she was always there to help someone else.”

Around the crash scene early Thursday, police closed a busy section of Lisbon Street while rescue crews responded and an investigation began. Police said traffic backed up in both directions of Lisbon Street but there were no further problems.

It was the third fatal crash in the state on Thursday, with others occurring in Scarborough and Oxford.

By Thursday night, Knightly, Stevens and others were going through old photographs and sharing memories of Leonard.

“I’ve had many fun times with that woman,” Stevens said. “I was devastated when I heard. She was a wonderful woman.”