GRAY – Evelyn Adelle Durgin, 87, lifelong resident of Gray, passed on with the arrival of the first rays of sunlight coming through her bedroom window early Wednesday, June 6, at her beautiful brick home.

She was born March 17, 1920. An only child, she grew up in the era of the Great Depression. Her father, whom she adored, Matthew Gardener Morrill, worked in the woods cutting firewood until he opened a sawmill in 1940.

In the early years of her life, her family moved around often in a mobile camp, depending on what area provided woods to be worked. She had attended many different places for schooling before she graduated as the valedictorian of her class at Pennell Institute in 1937. The following year, Bin was married to Paul Durgin on her 19th birthday.

She attended the University of Maine Northeastern Business School in Portland and mothered four children, who survive her. Her daughter, Cynthia, husband, Norman Rogers, of Gray; sons, David Durgin, and wife, Lisa, of Cocoa Beach, Fla., Dennis Durgin, and wife, Tina, of Gray and George Durgin of Punta Gorda, Fla.; 12 grandchildren; and 17 great-grandchildren.

She enjoyed life to the fullest, especially long walks through the woods, attending auctions, and keeping Gray Corner beautiful with her dedication to maintaining her gardens and flowers; for which a community service award was established by the town of Gray in her honor, named the Evelyn Morrill Durgin award, for which she was the first recipient.