Edessa Privee

RICHFORD - Edessa Tanilla Privee, nee Lepage, died peacefully on Sunday morning the 7th of October 2007 at the Haven Health Nursing Home, Saint Albans, Vermont. She was 88-years old, having been born on April 22, 1919 in Montgomery, Vermont to Donald and Ada Lepage (nee Longton). Her father had died on November 13, 1918, prior to her birth, in the Great Influenza Pandemic. Hardships in those years caused young Ada to ask her dear friend Orilla Lumbra (nee Mayhew) to care for Edessa and so she was raised in the loving home of Delphias and Orilla Lumbra in Montgomery Center. Edessas older brother, Ronald, was raised in Montgomery Center by his grandfather and grandmother, Louis and Marie Lepage. Her older sister, Rhea, moved with her mother to New York where Ada married Homer Stowell. From that marriage eight children were subsequently born: four half-brothers and four half-sisters. On the 19th of November 1936, Edessa married Leon Alfred Privee (of Richford, Vermont) in the Saint Isidore Catholic Church in Montgomery Center. Edessa bore six children in the following years: Alfred (Leon Jr.) (1936), Donald (1937), Noel (1938), Dianna (1941), Christine (1944), and James (1946). Her husband, Leon (Sr.), died on June 24, 1994 and her son, Noel, died on February 4th, 1998. Her sister, Rhea, died 1n 1997 and her brother, Ronald, died in 1999. Of her surviving children Alfred and his wife Betty live in Lincoln City, Oregon; Donald and his wife Jill live in Richford, Vermont; Dianna Doyle lives in Port Charlotte, Florida; Christine and her husband James Clarkson live in Spencer, Indiana; and James lives in Newport, Vermont. Edessa has seventeen grandchildren, nineteen great-grandchildren and two great-great grandchildren.

Edessa spent most of her life here in Vermont (Montgomery Center, Richford, East Berkshire), with the remaining years in Springfield and Palmer, Massachusetts; San Diego and Hemet, California; and Otis, Oregon. While in San Diego, Edessa returned to school to earn her High School diploma and then to graduate with honors from Nursing College. She spent many years in the nursing profession working in the operating room, as a hospital nurse, and later in the private homes of well-known families. Edessa was a loving and giving mother and wife, and spent her entire life dedicated to her family and grandchildren. She was a gifted craftsperson who proudly pointed to her Abenaki Indian heritage as the source of her talents. She loved to quilt, to design and sew clothing, and to cook wonderful meals and deserts. For several years, while living in Richford, Vermont, she was the sewing-master in a local clothing manufacturing company.

The Spears Funeral Home in Enosburg Falls is providing the final services for Edessa. She will be cremated and her ashes will be laid to rest beside her husband at the Saint Isidore Catholic Cemetery in Montgomery Center. Edessa was loved by all that knew her and she will be greatly missed. We love you.