1917 – 2013

AUBURN — Doris C. Sansbury, 95, of Schooner Estates, Auburn, left this life on Friday, March 8, at the Hospice House of Androscoggin Home Care & Hospice. She was faithful to her Lord and Savior.

She was born on July 2, 1917, in Minot, the daughter of Raymond L. and Monona B. Clifford.

She was educated in the Minot and Auburn schools, graduating from Edward Little High School in 1935. She attended night classes at the Auburn Maine School of Commerce, and graduated in 1947 from the Washington School for Secretaries.

She was employed in Auburn as part-time help at the County Clerk of Courts Office in Lewiston and at the Androscoggin Mill in Auburn. Doris also worked as an office clerk at Hoague-Sprague Box Factory in Auburn.

She was a veteran of World War II, enlisting in the U.S. Navy in 1944 and serving her country proudly. She was assigned to the Yeoman Training School in Stillwater, Oklahoma, and was stationed in Washington, D.C. She was discharged in August of 1946 with the rating of Yeoman 1c.

On May 2, 1946, she married Russell Lee Sansbury, a native of Washington D.C., at St. Timothy’s Episcopal Chapel. They lived in the District and nearby Maryland for 25 years before returning to Auburn in 1968.

She was employed in the district as a secretary, including a few years at the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare. She retired in 1979, after six years as secretary at the High Street Congregational Church in Auburn.

Doris and Russell were members of the District Heights Presbyterian Church in Maryland for 16 years. After they moved back to Auburn, they became members of the Auburn United Methodist Church in 1971.

She loved her dachshunds, Fritzi, Amos, Benji and especially Abbie, as well as her cat, Chloe. Doris enjoyed playing bridge with friends, swimming at the YWCA, music, reading, knitting and many other kinds of needlecrafts. She was on the Board of Directors of the Lewiston and Auburn SPCA Animal Shelter for many years, along with her husband, her mother and many friends.

Doris enjoyed traveling throughout Maine, New Hampshire, Maryland, Virginia and Washington State.

She is survived by nieces and nephews, Arthur F. Clifford of Malaga, Wash., Alan R. Clifford of Kent, Wash., Lynda Bloeser of Scottsdale, Ariz., Joyce Egan of Mountlake Terrace, Wash., Lois Lavoie of Merrimack, N.H., and Sharon Gray of Windham; many great-nieces and nephews; and her special friend, Bill Adams of Auburn.

She was predeceased by her husband of 58 years, Russell; her parents, Raymond and Monona; her brothers, Arthur F. Clifford of Auburn and Mountlake Terrace, Wash., and Roscoe L. Clifford of Auburn and Old Town; and a nephew, Glendon Clifford of North Amity.

Online condolences and sharing of memories may be expressed at www.lynchbrothers.com.