HERMON AND LIMESTONE - Gertrude Alice (Rossignol) Thompson, 91, passed away peacefully July 16, 2018, at Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor, after a brief illness. She was born September 25, 1926, in Limestone, the daughter of Yvonne and Elmer Rossignol.

Gertrude was raised in Limestone and graduated as salutatorian of her high school class in 1943. After graduation, she worked in social services for the state of Maine and volunteered with her sisters and sang at the USO in Caribou, until her marriage to Bernard in January 1946, after his service in World War II. Gertrude enjoyed baking, gardening, and picking dandelion greens, fiddleheads, wild strawberries, raspberries, wild blueberries, and apples--she was expert at jelly and jam making, pickling, and canning and freezing the fruits and vegetables of her labors. She also loved music, particularly songs from the 1940s and 1950s, and often sang when she worked around the house. Her favorite book was Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery, and after she lost her sight to macular degeneration and could no longer read, she enjoyed listening to books on cassette. She loved drinking tea and talking with her family and friends, and especially enjoyed visits from her grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Gertrude was predeceased by her husband, Bernard, and her only son, Kim, as well as her three sisters, Ella, Kay, and Joyce. She is survived by her daughter Glenda Dow and her husband, David, of Corinth; daughter Sheila Schoolcraft and her husband, William, of Garland; daughter Carla Thompson and her partner, Robert Gauvin, of Ayer, Massachusetts; daughter Sally Bernier and her husband, Jeffrey, of Hutto, Texas; daughter-in-law, Jane Thompson, of Augusta; eight grandchildren, eight great¬ grandchildren, and one great-great-granddaughter.

A Funeral Mass will be held 1:00 p.m. on Tuesday, July 24, 2018, at St. Paul the Apostle Parish, St. Mary’s Catholic Church, Ohio St., Bangor. The family invites relatives and friends to share conversation and refreshments in the church parish hall immediately following the Mass. The Rite of Committal will be held 1:00 p.m. Wednesday, July 25, 2018 at the St. Louis Cemetery, Limestone.

Gifts in her memory may be made to St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital, 501 St. Jude Place, Memphis, TN 38105, or by phone at 1-800-805-5856, or online at www.stjude.org/donate/. Condolences to the family may be expressed at BrookingsSmith.com