AUBURN – Gwen Fenderson, a longtime Cape Elizabeth resident, died peacefully in her sleep on Saturday, Sept. 3.

She was born Nov. 3, 1921, in East Boothbay, to Lawny Farnham, a lobsterman, and Leona Gamage Farnham, a seamstress and baker for the Ocean Point Inn. She graduated as Valedictorian, Class of 1939, from Boothbay Harbor High School.

After graduation, she moved to Portland to attend business school and lived with her aunt and uncle, Dot and Dick Robinson, and their daughter, Carol, in Cape Elizabeth.

Her first job was at Benoit’s Department Store. She later worked at Oakhurst Dairy, where she met and married Ed Fenderson on March 9, 1946. They spent their honeymoon skiing at Eastern Slopes Inn in North Conway, N.H.

They built two homes in Cape Elizabeth, where they raised their daughters, Nancy and Jane. She loved to play bridge and was active in Cape Elizabeth groups.

Later, Ed became a Methodist minister, serving churches in Maine: Fryeburg Harbor, Waterford, Bailey’s and Orr’s Islands, Congress Street and Chestnut Street in Portland, Calvary United Methodist Church in Lewiston, Cape Elizabeth, Southport Island, Chebeague Island and West Baldwin. Mom always enjoyed the interaction with members of the church and often acted as the church secretary. She loved cooking for the church suppers and fellowship hours, and made lifelong friends along the way.

Gwen and Ed were also active in Eastern Star, and she was a life member of the Longfellow Chapter 61 in South Portland.

After living many years in the family home in East Boothbay, Ed and Gwen decided to move back closer to family and friends in the Cape Elizabeth area, buying a home in South Portland.

A part of Gwen lives on through her daughter, Nancy Harris and husband, Paul, of Auburn, another daughter, Jane Leonard of Poway, Calif.; a grandson, Ben Leonard and his girlfriend, Stacey Stanley, and their new daughter, Elsie Emery Leonard, Gwen’s first great-granddaughter, of Raymond.

She is also survived by her aunt, Alice Allen, and her children and grandchildren of Sebago; her uncle, Dick Robinson; a niece, Carol Jones and her children and grandchildren of Falmouth and Portland, Maine, and Oregon; brother-in-law, Bud Fenderson of Old Orchard Beach; and sister-in-law, Phyllis Fenderson and her children and grandchildren of Falmouth and Portland.

She was predeceased by her husband, Ed Fenderson; and oldest grandson, Ned Leonard.

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