DIXFIELD – Patricia Woodward McBride, 78, died Tuesday, Oct. 26, at her residence at the Ellsmore Apartments.

Born in Providence, R.I., June 9, 1926, the daughter of Albert L. and Florence (Swenson) Woodward, she grew up and attended schools in Cranston, R.I. She studied nursing at R.I. and Charleston General (W.Va.) hospitals. She also attended Morris Harvey College and Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in sociology.

She worked as a social worker in Chicago and Dayton, Ohio, and R.I., received teaching a degree from R.I. College and did graduate work at U.R.I. She taught school in Glocester and Smithfield, R.I. She worked for the Town of Foster in assessing office and later in a revaluation firm, retiring in 1995 to move to Dixfield.

She was a former Girl Scout leader, member of the Foster Zoning Board, Dixfield Planning Board, Ludden Library Board of Trustees and St. Barnabas Episcopal Church, where she served as a lay reader, chalice bearer and lay Eucharistic minister. She was an active member of the Down East Sled Dog Club and two other clubs devoted to sled dogs, until illness forced retirement. She was an avid reader, seamstress and gardener.

She was married in Oxford, Ohio on June 6, 1948, to Homer A. “Mac” McBride, who died in Norway on March 13, 2003.

Survivors include two daughters, Cherilea Andrews, of Carthage and Cynthia Iwanczuk and husband, Ihor, of Putnam, Conn.; a grandson, Adrian Iwanczuk, of Thompson, Conn.; and granddaughter, Ilka Iwanczuk, of Lawrence, Kan.

She was predeceased by a daughter, Andrea Rawson.

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