Alice Gardner Grover

LEWISTON – Alice Gardner Grover, 91, died on Sunday, May 16, 2021, with family by her side.

She was born at the family farm on Perkins Ridge in Auburn, in 1929 at the start of the Great Depression, both of which shaped her life of hard work and frugality. The fields and pastures of what are now Wallingford’s Orchard and Lost Valley were her playground.

She was the tenth of 11 children of the late Adelard and Anna (Theriault) Gardner and the widow of her beloved Carl Grover whom she married in 1960 and who died in 1988.

She attended a one room schoolhouse on “The Ridge” and graduated third in her class in 1947 from Edward Little High School. Her class was the largest in E.L. history when 45 World War II veterans returned to complete their educations.

Alice made her home in Dover, N.H., for over 60 years before returning to Lewiston in 2020.

Directly out of high school she began her 38-year career with New England Telephone and NYNEX and retired from a management position. She was a proud and active member of the “Telephone Pioneers”, Parish of the Assumption in Dover, N.H., and the Dover Senior Center. A world traveler into her 80s, she was quick to say she visited Europe 17 times!

Alice was friendly, loving, generous, always had a great story or memorable quip, and was a ruthless Bananagrams and Scrabble player. She was the communications hub of her large family and an exceptional caretaker to all around her up until age 89 when health limited her abilities.

Alice was also predeceased by six brothers, Laurent, Arsene, George, Camille, John, and Reginald and three sisters, Marthe Heutz, Laurette Gardner, and Madeline Jeannotte.

She will be greatly missed by her sister, Corinne Verreault, sister-in-law, Jacqueline Gardner, and her many nephews and nieces. She’ll be especially missed by her nieces and surrogate “daughters”, Joanne Gardner, Joyce Pfleiderer, and Anne Verreault Ross.

Her family would like to thank FirstLight and especially Sandy and Paula.

A Funeral Mass honoring Alice’s life will be celebrated on Thursday at 1:00 PM at St. Philip’s Church in Auburn. Graveside committal services will then follow at St. Peter’s Cemetery. Visitation will be held on Thursday from 10:00 AM till the time of the service at the Pinette Dillingham & Lynch Funeral Home 305 Alfred A. Plourde Parkway in Lewiston 784-4023. Online condolences and sharing of memories may be expressed at http://www.lynchbrothers.com .

Please consider a donation in Alice’s honor to NH Audubon

84 Silk Farm Road,

Concord, NH, 03301, http://www.nhaudubon.org or

Ludholm Trust,

PO BOX 1007

Wells, ME 04090.





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