Burpee, Carpenter & Hutchins Funeral Home

SOUTH THOMASTON - It is with great sadness that the family of Elsie Ilvonen, announce her death on Saturday, February 24, 2007.
Born in South Thomaston, February 26, 1919 to Archie Healy and Edna Rowell Rackliff, Elsie and her sisters, Marion Arey, Lucy Judecki and Amy Payson, along with her brother Maurice who died in 1983, grew up on a small farm. As a child and young woman during the Great Depression, Elsie learned to tend a garden alongside her mother, haul lobster traps alongside her father and developed a lifelong love of hunting. Grange hall dances, family house parties, and listening to Red Sox games on the radio were her joys. Though her life was simple and times were hard, Elsie attended Rockland High School, graduating with the class of 1936.
Following high school, she left home to find work in New York City. On her days off there, she spent a few pennies on standing room tickets to Broadway shows, where she saw the most celebrated actors of the day.
She moved to Hingham, Massachusetts, again looking for work, and there met Herbie Loring. They were married in 1941, and had one child Frances, in 1943. Herbie Loring joined the Army and was killed in Europe during World War II.
Elsie returned to South Thomaston, where she met Carl M. Ilvonen, who had two daughters of his own, Ruth who died in 1993 and Becky. They married in 1947 and raised their girls together along with four more children, Marie, Audrey and twins Mark and Mary Beth.
Civic minded and always glad to give, she especially patronized the Red Cross and gave blood regularly. Active in politics, Elsie served on her local school board and worked on state gubernatorial as well as national presidential campaigns.
For more than twenty years, she worked with her husband as sternman and business partner on their lobster boat. She kept books, filled bait bags, hauled traps and was well known and respected in the lobster fishing community.
In the early 1970s, Elsie took up snowmobiling and motorcycling. Her first motorcycle was a Honda 90, but she soon graduated at the age of 69, to her own Harley Davidson Sportster. She became a charter member of the Harley Owners Group and belonged to the Central Maine Harley H.O.G. Chapter. She was also a member of the Dressers Association and the Ladies of Harley. Her favorite rallies were the Annual Atlantic Regional Rallies in the Maritime Provinces of Canada.
With her children grown and raising families of their own, Elsie's motorcycle and snowmobile took her traveling again where she met and befriended many people of all ages and backgrounds, all over the United States and Canada. Many people have stories to tell that begin, "The first time I met Elsie . . .".
Throughout her life she continued to hunt and was the first in her family admitted to the Biggest Bucks in Maine Club. There are 17 notches on the butt of her gun and she shot her last buck in 1998 at the age of 80. She rode her motorcycle until the age of 80 and her snowmobile until 83. Even after she was no longer able to drive her own machines, she continued to ride to rallies and gatherings on the back of her husband's bike, until the age of 86.
She was always glad to have company, always appreciated a good story, and even in her last days, still loved to dance.
With the help of her family, her friend and caregiver Ruth Peterson, Elsie was able to stay at home and died peacefully in bed surrounded by generations of loved ones, just shy of her 88th birthday. She will be missed by many people including her three sisters, her twelve grandchildren, her fourteen great-grandchildren, her daughters Frances Loring, Becky Rheume, Marie Ilvonen, Audrey McClure, Mary Beth Nolette, her son Mark Ilvonen and most of all her beloved and devoted husband of 60 years, Carl.
A celebration of Elsie's life will be held at 4:00 p.m., Friday, March 2, 2007 at Burpee, Carpenter & Hutchins Funeral Home, 110 Limerock Street, Rockland. A potluck reception will follow at the Winslow-Holbrook-Merritt American Legion Post, 335 Limerock Street, Rockland.
In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to Kno-Wal-Lin Hospice, 170 Pleasant Street, Rockland, ME 04841.