LEWISTON – Dorothy Lepage, who was rescued from a pond after a December crash that claimed the life of her husband, died Friday at d’Youville Pavilion.

The 75-year-old had been moved to the Lewiston nursing home after being treated for her injuries at MaineGeneral Medical Center in Augusta.

She was hurt Dec. 9 when the car she and her husband, Leonard, were in slid off Route 126 in West Gardiner and landed in Horseshoe Pond.

Police said 80-year-old Leonard Lepage died at the Augusta hospital after he was pulled from the frigid pond where he had been submerged for eight minutes.

His wife survived the ordeal, police said, because of a group of passers-by who stopped and attempted to rescue the couple from the wreck.

Dorothy Lepage had been listed in critical condition at the hospital in the days after the the crash. She was later moved to d’Youville Pavilion, closer to her home and family.

The crash occurred along Route 126 as a slow-moving snowstorm caused slick roads and treacherous driving. Police said the Lepages’ car landed upside down in the pond.

Cory Poulin and Randy Ricker, both of Augusta, had been driving along Route 126 when they spotted the car in the water.

“We were screaming, trying to find out if anybody was in there,” Poulin said. “The woman yelled back, There are two people in here!”‘

They broke out a window but were unable to retrieve the occupants until they enlisted a tractor-trailer’s chain to tug the car upright.

Others who stopped at the crash site included a nurse who started CPR on both victims, police said. Dorothy Lepage began breathing but her husband did not, according to Kennebec County Sheriff Everett Flannery.

“The Good Samaritan definitely comes into play,” Flannery said the day of the crash. “They saw it and took action immediately and saved someone’s life.”

Leonard and Dorothy Lepage were married in 1953 at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Lewiston. He had retired from Camden Yarns and she from Bates Manufacturing, according to information from their 45th anniversary celebration in Sabattus in 1998.

The couple had three daughters, six grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.