PORTLAND — Madeleine “Maddie” D. Simpson, 59, a longtime resident of McAuley Road in Cape Elizabeth passed away peacefully Tuesday, June 28, at St. Joseph’s Manor Hospice due to complications from ALS.

Maddie was born May 10, 1952, in Lewiston, the daughter of Marcel and Doris Leblond. She was educated in the Auburn schools and was a graduate of Edward Little High School. She was a communicant of Saint Bartholomew’s Catholic Church in Cape Elizabeth.

After graduating from high school, she began working for Sparks Department Store in Lewiston. Each day on the way to the bank, Maddie would walk through the Kresge’s store, where Tom was in management training for Kmart. The two married in May 1973. After living briefly in Bangor, they moved to South Portland.

Maddie began working in the Shaw’s main offices as a bookkeeper until 1980, when she left Shaw’s to work alongside her husband at Shopper’s True Value Hardware in Millcreek, South Portland. She was responsible for the purchase of unique gifts and housewares. She continued to be a vital presence in the store every day until her death, greeting each customer with a “thumbs up” for the last year and a half due to the limits of her speech from ALS.

Maddie was an energetic, outgoing person who dearly loved her family, gardening, traveling, the Red Sox and going to the theater. She had a decorator’s touch at the store, in her home and in her many gardens. She was able to bring beauty to everything she touched. Her sassy, but loving spirit will be missed by all who knew her and loved her. In January, friends of her daughter performed a concert in her honor, called “Music for Maddie,” raising more than $8,000 for the Northern New England Chapter of the ALS Association.

She is survived by her husband of 38 years, Tom; a son, Michael and his wife, Laurie, of South Portland; a daughter, Jessica of Cape Elizabeth; a grandson, Carter Thomas of Cape Elizabeth; her mother, Doris Leblond, sister, Pauline Irish and her husband, James, brother, Leo Leblond and his wife, Pauline, and sister, Rachel Talarico and husband, Kris, all of Auburn.

She was predeceased by her father, Marcel Leblond.