Obituary of Lucy Eleanor (Manix) Dawson (with additional story)

Lucy Eleanor (Manix) Dawson

January 31, 1917 - May 31, 2002

Noted Hampton Resident Passes Away

Atlantic News, Thursday, June 6, 2002
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HAMPTON — Lucy Eleanor (Manix) Dawson, 84, of 5 Cogger Street, died Friday, May 31, 2002, at her residence.

She was born in Beverly, Mass., on January 31, 1917, the daughter of the late Cornelius and Lucy M. (Dockum) Manix.

Moving to Exeter as a child, she attended the Exeter school system, graduating from the Robinson Female Seminary in 1935, serving as president of her class. Later she attended the Margaret Pillsbury College of Nursing in Concord and the Bellevue Hospital in New York City receiving a degree in nursing.

She served in the US Air Force, ATC Division as First Lieutenant Nurse in the Medical Corps during World War LI. Later she served as a staff nurse with the Red Cross Bloodmobile in North Hampton.

She served as a nurse for the Missouri Pacific Railroad Hospital in St. Louis, Missouri, and the Simplex Wire and Cable Company of Newington and later as an Occupational Health Nurse by GTE Sylvania of Exeter, retiring in 1979.

She was active in the Monday Club of Hampton. Senior Citizens Club of Hampton, Hampton American Legion, Disabled Veterans of Newington, Women’s Military Association of NH, the Hampton Recreation Advising Committee, the Rockingham County Area Senior Advising Committee, a Robinson Seminary alumnae, the NH Retired Officers’ Club, the American Association of Retired Persons, the Exeter Area Chapter, Retired Senior Volunteer Program — Seacoast Area, the Hampton Republican Committee, Oasis at Exeter Hospital, the Rockingham Advisory Committee on Aging, and the Harmony Club Nurses Group.

She was also a volunteer at the Seacoast Health Center in Hampton, and also placed calls to the shut-ins.

She was the widow of James Dawson, who died in 1978.

Survivors include 2 stepchildren, Michael Thompson of San Diego, Calif. and James Thompson and his wife, Ann of Ashland, Mass.; three brothers, William E. Manix Sr. of Exeter, Thomas C. Manix of Exeter and James J. Manix of Fairfield, Conn.; one sister, Lena Knight of Columbus, Ga.; and several nieces, nephews, and cousins.

She was predeceased by a stepdaughter, Jacqueline Dawson Thompson; a brother, John Manix; a sister, Cornelia Huntington; and a son-in-law, Jack Thompson.

Private services will be held at the convenience of the family. Private burial will be in the High Street Cemetery, Hampton. Arrangements are by the Remick & Gendron Funeral Home-Crematory, Hampton.




Saying a final 'farewell' To A Friend

By Isabel Grasso

Atlantic News, Thursday, June 13, 2002

[The following article is courtesy of the Atlantic News]

Newspapers around the Seacoast have written about the sudden death of Lucy Eleanor Dawson, a very popular resident of Hampton. The impressive list of organizations and clubs she belonged to have been printed in the papers. People who did not know her probably wondered how she managed to participate in so many groups. Even people who knew her well were amazed, but there was so much more to Eleanor than that.

Eleanor was a veteran, a nurse, a volunteer amid — first of all — a woman who loved her family and her friends. Her marriage to her Jimmy was a very happy one. I never met him, but it was obvious as she talked about him that she had only the happiest of memories of the life and love they shared. They went to church and restaurants and took trips together. While she had no children, her stepdaughter Jacqueline was as close as a daughter to her. Eleanor called her “the daughter of my heart.” But eventually Eleanor lost her husband, her stepdaughter and her stepdaughter’s husband. She lived alone many years, but with so many friends, she was not lonely.

Eleanor was very active in the Hampton Seniors and Hampton Monday Club. She worked quietly in the background, seeking no attention, just doing whatever she could to help. At the Monday Club, she was in charge of the sign-in book and always greeted members warmly as she handed out name tags. On Sundays, she often put together small groups of women to have lunch at a local restaurant or a nearby country club. One Easter Sunday she invited four women (all of whom would have been alone that day) to join her for a holiday dinner. Oftentimes after lunch Eleanor would like to drive her friends around Hampton Beach or over to New Castle. She really made an outing of these lunches.

Eleanor had several health problems in the past year or two. She had pneumonia last winter, and when she fell at a Memorial Day ceremony at Marston School just about a year ago, she fractured her kneecap and broke a couple of ribs. Though she was obviously in pain, she never complained.

When Liz Premo of the Atlantic News and Marston School Principal David O’Connor went to visit her (bringing a vast array of “get well” cards the students had made), Eleanor was overjoyed with this expression of their concern and friendship. A stroke from which she recovered had some non-life-threatening effects on her, but still she never complained. Recently she had sciatica, which often confined her to the house for several weeks at a time. But friends were there to help: her very dear friend, Hazel Sinisgalli, took her to the recent “Hello Spring” event at Hampton Academy Junior High School.

Eleanor took advantage of trips which the Hampton Recreation Department planned, and those which the Lamprey Bus Company made available to the town’s residents. She also took trips with the veterans groups. Toward Christmastime, Eleanor would go to all of the church fairs and would always have lunch at one of them. She supported them all.

Always well-liked and always friendly, Eleanor was often visited by children in the neighborhood. She had some lovely coffee table art books at home to look at during leisure time, and she enjoyed good music. She also enjoyed the North Hampton bandstand concerts, which a group of six or more of us went,to Wednesday evenings during the summer. We would arrive about 5 p.m., sit under our favorite tree and enjoy a picnic supper, buying hot dogs from the Masons and dessert from the North Hampton’s Women’s Club, then listened to two hours of music. Whatever kind of music was played, by whatever band, Eleanor enjoyed it and had a good time.

Eleanor was not afraid to express her feelings by saying “Good-bye, I love you” when parting from a friend. And although we replied “Good-bye, I love you” too, we meant the love, but did not know the “good-bye” was a final one. We never really had a chance for a farewell she died so suddenly.

We have lost a good friend, a woman who listened and shared, who would give advice if it were asked for, otherwise not. She was a wonderful woman, wise and very special. We will miss her. She helped to make this little corner of the planet — Hampton — an even nicer place to live.

Good-bye, Eleanor. We love you.




A Special Presentation

"A Tribute to Eleanor Dawson"

By Isabel Grasso

Atlantic News, Thursday, October 17, 2002

[The following article is courtesy of the Atlantic News]


HONORING A SPECIAL FRIEND — Gerry Wilbur, Dyana Lassonde and Jackie Thomas-Browning
display the plaque honoring Eleanor Dawson.
[Atlantic News Photo by Isabel Grasso]

HAMPTON — Something new has been added at the Hampton Recreation Department and the friends of Eleanor Dawson are invited to some and see it. This is how it happened:

Gerry Wilbur has been president of the Hampton Senior Citizens Club for six non-consecutive years. She has just been replaced by a man, who will run the Hampton Seniors for the first time -- Ed Stuckey, who has already conducted two meetings.

But Gerry had one last project to complete on her “patch.” She presented a plaque in Eleanor Dawson’s memory to Dyana Lassonde, director of the Hampton Recreation Department. Eleanor had been a leading citizen and volunteer in Hampton — a nurse, a retired first lieutenant in the US Air Force, active in the Monday Club of Hampton, the Hampton Seniors, AARP in Exeter, the Council on Aging in Brentwood and a member of the Board of Directors of the Hampton Recreation Department.

On Thursday, October 10, Gerry turned the plaque over to Dyana and it will be placed on the wall by the entrance to the Rec. Department. Eleanor had many friends and was active as a volunteer — you could call her a "volunteer's volunteer.” She left many friends in the Seacoast area, but Hampton was home and she is missed. So her friends will be able to see the plaque, even if the Rec. Department is closed, as long as the Town Hall is open.

Thanks go to Liz Premo of the Atlantic News for taking the great photo used for the plaque and to John Hirtle, also of the Atlantic News, for his computer expertise in preparing the picture. These two staff members made the plaque possible to be created in this friendly and very patriotic woman's memory.

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