RUMFORD – Jesse W. Hodsdon Sr., 99, of Rumford, died Saturday, April 4, at the Rumford Hospital, Rumford.

In recent months he enjoyed his stay at the Victorian Villa in Canton.

He was born in Canton Point, on June 5, 1909, the son of Victor Francis and Ella (Taylor) Hodsdon and had attended schools in Auburn.

During World War II he served as a Tech 5, Company B, 48th Tank Battalion, where he drove tanks in Patton’s army including Northern France, Rhineland Ardennes and Central Europe.

He worked as a millwright in maintenance at the steam plant at Oxford Paper Co., in Rumford for over 27 years until retirement in 1974.

He was a member of the Rumford United Methodist Church, member of Robert Shand Post 1642, VFW and member of Napoleon Ouellette Post 24, American Legion.

He enjoyed woodworking, especially making bird houses. He loved the out-of-doors, especially picking berries, pussy willows, mayflowers and lady slippers.

He was formerly married to Wyona Nute. and later married in Rumford on April 15, 1939, Elizabeth “Bette” Spaulding, who survives of Rumford.

Other survivors include son Jesse W. Hodsdon Jr. and wife, Rita, of Tallahassee, Fla.; daughter, Mary Pulsifer and husband, Jim, of Peru; stepchildren, Dorothy Hopkins and husband, George of Lewiston and Florida, William Kimball and companion, Sandy Skillins, of Dixfield, Martha Hanington and husband, Albert, of Rumford and David Kimball of The Villages, Fla; 21 grandchildren; 37 great-grandchildren; five great-great-grandchildren.