AUBURN – Rita Normand Voisine, 90, of Schooner Estates, passed away on Friday, March 6, at the Hospice House of Androscoggin Home Care and Hospice with her family at her side.

She was born in Brunswick, Oct. 24, 1918, the daughter of the late Leonce and Emily Lachance Normand. Her ancestors migrated from Beline, France, to Quebec, Canada. Her father came to the Brunswick area, where he was employed, first in the mills and then at Bath Iron Works.

She was educated in Brunswick schools and graduated from nursing school in Brunswick, where she worked under Dr. Dionne at the local hospital. Her love of nursing was with newborn babies. She assisted delivering babies with Dr. Dionne throughout the Brunswick, Bath, Orrs Island and Bailey Island area.

Later she learned the trade and eventually became well-known as a professional furrier throughout Maine. She was employed for more than 40 years at Ward Bros. in Lewiston, where she was very much in demand in the ladies fur boutique.

She learned to ski at the age of 42, and also enjoyed traveling, knitting, sewing, pottery, water color and pleasant times spent at Hermit Island with her children and grandchildren. She was a member of the Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul in Lewiston and had wintered the past 20 years in Naples, Fla.

She is survived by a daughter, Linda Bazinet Bradford of Sante Fe, N.M.; two sons, Robert N. Bazinet and partner, Charlene Lonick, of Naples, Fla., and William Voisine of Lewiston; six grandchildren, Steven Bazinet and wife, Juli, and their three children, Jayde, Elyse and Evan, all of Falmouth, Michael Bazinet and wife, Kelly, and their children, Kenneth and Nicholas, Chad Bazinet and Nicole Bazinet, all of Bangor, Brian Bradford of Las Cruces, N.M., and Daren Bradford and wife, Candis, of Sante Fe, N.M.; and nieces and nephews, Albert Bazinet, Diane Bazinet LaVoie, Jacqueline Frechette Knight and Judith Frechette Dougherty.

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