SOUTH PARIS – Ida Korhonen Gurney, 80, of Pioneer Street, West Paris passed away Nov. 7, at Market Square Health Center.

She was born in West Paris, July 19, 1924, to Finnish immigrants Kusti and Anna (Keittonen) Korhonen and graduated from West Paris High School. After graduation, she lived and worked in Hartford, Conn., until she moved back to Maine to marry her soulmate, Howard Gurney.

She and Howard lived on Nichols Street, South Paris, until 1951, when they moved to Trap Corner in West Paris and started their dairy farm. She and Howard raised five children, as well as numerous foster children, including Michael King and James Burgess, as they managed the farm.

As the family grew and started school, she began working in the banking industry, first with Norway National Bank, and then later with Oxford Bank and Trust when they opened a branch in West Paris. In 1968, she and Howard moved to Rangeley as he became Town Manager, and she began work with Franklin Savings Bank.

In the mold of her father, Kusti and her favorite aunt, Mary, Mrs. Gurney was constantly curious and forever learning. She took courses in writing and drawing, painting and quilting, and was a published writer.

While in Rangeley she sang in the Rangeley Free Baptist choir. Even though English was her second language, she read constantly in a wide range of interests and was a witty and engaging conversationalist. To friends, she brought wit, energy and a radiant smile to potluck dinners, card games and social occasions. She was an adept dancer of the schottische, as well as the foxtrot and waltz, and found an able partner in her husband, Howard.

As a school-child she was the brunt of taunts, due to her family’s poverty and her early limitations in English. In later years, she would work as a Literacy Volunteer for Oxford Hills Adult Education, helping people become competent and confident readers and speakers.

She retired as assistant manager of the Rangeley branch of Franklin Savings Bank in 1986, moving back to West Paris with Howard. Her respect and love for Finnish culture and heritage led her to help form the Finnish-American Heritage Society of Maine, based in West Paris.

One of the great dreams of her life was fulfilled when she flew to Finland in 1992, visiting cousins, aunts and uncles she had never before seen. She was passionately involved with Friends of the Public Library of West Paris, working toward the preservation and expansion of a very unique library.

She committed many years of work and dedication to the Women’s Auxiliary of the Veterans of Foreign Wars as past District Commander, as well as a member of the Elizabeth Channing Post, and as vice-chair of Post 120, Rangeley.

She is survived by her brother, Matti Korhonen and wife, Etta Mae, and her sisters-in-law, Mary Korhonen and Winifred Cleveland, as well as many cousins, nieces and nephews; she is sorrowfully missed by her husband of 59 years, Howard Gurney, as well as her five children, Mary Jones (Dan), of Mansfield, Ohio, Tina Page (Lou), of Norway, Ernest Gurney, of Franklin County, Matt Gurney (DyAnne), of Norway, and Gardner Gurney (Kim), of Delanson, N.Y.; she leaves grandchildren, Ryan Jones, Timothy and Thomas Stevens, Robert Gurney, Kelly McElligott, Matti Gurney, Katherine Gurney, Sarah, Rachel and Caitlin Gurney; she was blessed with the presence of three great-grandchildren, Jordan Stevens, Addison Gurney and Jackson McElligott.

She was predeceased by her parents, Kusti and Anna, her sister, Anna, and brothers, Leo Korhonen and Reino Korhonen.

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