Iva R. Bragg
1922 – 2009
AUBURN — Iva R. Bragg, 87, passed away Tuesday, Sept. 30, surrounded by her loving family at the Hospice House.
She was born Aug. 9, 1922, in North Paris, the 4th child of Guy and Amy (Ellingwood) Farris.
She attended grade school in Woodstock and went to Stephens High School in Rumford. While attending high school, she worked as a live-in nanny, then returned home on Sumner Hill, where she met her husband of 68 years, Thomas Bragg Sr., whom she had 14 children with. She and her husband raised their children in a house they purchased soon after they were married in Sumner.
She always enjoyed being around family, especially babies; she loved watching her grandchildren. She started the Bragg Family Reunion, which celebrated its 27th year.
She was an active member of the Sumner mother’s club, Union Grange, and the East Sumner Congregational Church, where she started a youth group that met in her own home.
She was an excellent cook, and passed down her skills to her children; her recipes are still being used by her family today. She was a devoted wife, mother, friend, sister, aunt and an overall great woman who will greatly be missed.
She was survived by eight children, Rosemary Henderson and husband, Ed, Helen Jordon, David Bragg and wife, Brenda, Violet Enman and husband, Randy, Marie Curtis and husband, Albert, Frank Bragg and wife, Shelly, Chris Bragg and wife, Peggy and Jenny Clark and husband, Robert; one daughter-in-law, Lucy Wilcox and husband, Glenn; three sisters, Isabel Bedard, Jody Trenoweth and Jane Stevens; 30 grandchildren; 60 great-grandchildren; 22 great-great-grandchildren, and many nieces and nephews.
She was predeceased by one brother, Horace Farris; two sisters, Elva Niemi and Joyce Soucy; six children, James Bragg, Beryl Joline Bragg, Joyce Verna Bragg, Thomas Bragg Jr., Edward Bragg and Richard Bragg; one son-in-law, Wallace Haynes; two grandchildren, Baby Boy Bragg and Amy Bragg; and one great-grandson, Jared Henderson.