LIVERMORE FALLS – Longtime town election clerk and American Legion Unit 10 member Laura Alvino was remembered Monday as being very patriotic, feisty and dedicated to her causes.
Alvino, 85, died peacefully at her home Sunday on Park Street, her daughter, Lorretta Hamann of Lewiston said. Doctors discovered five blockages in her heart in early January, Hamann said, but they declined to operate because they didn’t believe her mother would make it through a quintuple bypass.
Her mother was active to the end, she said.
The town of Livermore Falls dedicated its 2003 annual report to Alvino.
In part the dedication reads: “Her hard work of decorating her home on Park Street brightens the area for many. Seeing her face in the window either day or night puts a smile on the faces of many that know her. Livermore Falls would do well with having many more citizens like Laura Alvino.”
The family had planned to celebrate her 86th birthday at a party next Sunday.
Alvino was the only one of 10 Lucarelli siblings to be born in the United States, her daughter said. The others were born in Italy.
Alvino, who was barely 5 feet tall, was one to speak her mind, Hamann said.
“She had strong ideas about politics,” she said, and she wasn’t afraid to tell people what those ideas were.
Livermore Falls Town Clerk/Treasurer Kristal Flagg said Alvino came by the Town Office on Friday to talk to her.
“She congratulated me and wished me well” on a new business venture, Flagg said. She was shocked to learn Monday that Alvino had died.
Alvino was an election clerk for more than 30 years, Flagg said. She was sworn in annually as the election warden and closed the polls each election. She would always bring the clerks homemade Italian cookies.
“I remember when I voted at 18, she helped me,” Flagg said.
The town clerk also remembered visiting Taglienti’s Market as a child, which Alvino and her late husband, Herbert Alvino, operated for many years.
Hamann said her mother was very active in the American Legion Unit 10 in Livermore Falls, and was involved in Girls State and Boys State.
“She was very, very patriotic,” Hamann said.
Alvino was a member of the Legion’s auxiliary for about 60 years, starting as a junior member when she was a teenager, said Don Simoneau, Post 10 finance officer and a past commander.
Alvino served as president of the auxiliary for 14 years. She also served as president of the auxiliary at the state district and Androscoggin County level, and she taught local youth about patriotism.
“She was always there,” Simoneau said of Alvino’s commitment to the Legion’s cause and services.
“She did it all and she did it all for 60 years,” Simoneau said. “She didn’t do it alone but she did it. She’s going to be a hard lady to replace.”
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