VENICE, Fla. – Barbara R. Gillis, R.N., 83, died Oct. 14, in Venice, Fla., with her family by her side. A resident of Rumford, most of her life, she recently has resided in Venice, Fla., and summered at Worthly Pond, Peru for many years.

She was born in Rumford, on Oct. 25, 1920, a daughter of William and Marion (Littlefield) Rowe.

She graduated from Stephens High School in Rumford in 1938, and attended the University of Maine for two years and the Eye and Ear Infirmary in Portland for three years where she received her R.N. degree in Nursing in 1943.

During World War II, she served as a 1st Lt. with the U.S. Army Air Corps.

She was a communicant of St. Joseph’s Catholic Mission Church, Dixfield.

She was married in Rockville, Md., on Dec. 23, 1946, to the late Lawrence A. “Lolly” Gillis who died in Naples, Fla., on Aug. 11, 2002.

Survivors include a son, Lawerence A. Gillis Jr. and wife, Janice, of West Simsbury, Conn.; two daughters, Elizabeth DiBiase and husband, John, of Portland, Linda Cochran and husband, Larry, of Venice, Fla.; five grandchildren, Michael Gillis and wife, Amy, of Hulls Cove, David Gillis, of Cape Elizabeth, Jonathan Gillis, of Brookline, Mass., Joshua and Ben DiBiase, of Portland; two stepgrandchildren, Geoffrey and Justin Simpson, of West Simsbury, Conn.; two brothers, Dr. Linwood Rowe, of West Peru, and John Rowe and wife, Geraldine, of Champlain, N.Y.; a sister, Sally Fraser and husband, James, of St. John Island, S.C.

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