BRUNSWICK — Ernestine Madora Tupper, 73, passed on to her heavenly home from Parkview Memorial Hospital in Brunswick, Friday, Nov. 26, after a year-long fight with cancer.

She was born in Durham, April 29, 1937, oldest daughter of Earnest Heed and Christine McKay Tupper. She attended Crosman Corner School in Durham. Her father was an Army Lt. Col., and the family traveled widely, living in Germany, Panama and various other duty stations around the world. In 1950, she married Norman Garner in Texas. They were married for 20 years. They had two daughters, Christine Bender of Sevierville, Tenn., and Carrie Zweig of Tucson, Ariz. She was also married to Richard Gleason of Kingman, Ariz., for 14 years.

Ernestine attended college in Texas, earned her bachelor’s degree, and then went on to get her master’s degree in Arizona where she taught elementary school in Nogales, Ariz. She also taught home economics in high school in Guam for two years.

The family loved to travel and purchased a single-engine Piper Cub airplane lovingly called “Chicken,” because of its yellow color. They flew to vacation spots, landed on the beach and camped out. Ernestine became an accomplished pilot and logged hundreds of hours of flying time, visiting family or going on family camping trips. She loved cooking, riding horseback and antiquing.

For a time she worked for the park service and loved walking through nature in her state uniform of shorts and wide-brimmed hat! Her heart belonged to the open spaces and unending skies of Arizona.

She was always community minded and became a docent at an Indian mission in Arizona, providing historical and cultural background for visitors from all over the world.

Ernestine loved the Bible and spent many hours reading and studying the Scriptures. When she was 54, she decided to attend Fairwood Bible Institute in Dublin, N.H., where she learned to love “her Lord” with all her heart. She exhibited that love through her community service as a volunteer at Parkview Hospital from April 2008 to the present, and served several other human service outreach organizations as well through the years. She was a member of the Kingdom Christian Ministries in Dublin, N.H.

Ernestine is survived by her daughter, Christine Bender of Sevierville, Tenn., daughter, Carrie Zweig and son-in-law, Fred Zweig, of Tucson, Arizona; sister, Patricia Lindquist of Apopka, Fla.; brother, Howard, of Stuart, Fla.; four grandchildren, Paul Bender, Leandra Bender, Cassandra Malia Zweig and Robert (Emilio) Zweig; great-granddaughter, Ella Bender; niece, Kimberly Stewart Oxentenko of Apopka, Fla.; and nephew, Michael Robert Stewart of Camp Springs, Md.