Jeannette Girard

For the past five years, Jeannette’s residence was at Davis Place in Danielson, CT where she and her family recently celebrated Jeannette’s 90th birthday. Previously she lived in Putnam, Woodstock and Grosvenordale, CT. She was born at home in Mechanicsville, CT.

Early childhood and school days were spent in Grosvenordale where Jeannette had many fond memories. Playing outside all summer long, neighborhood kids gathering on her front stairs, holding carnivals in her backyard, pretending the bulkhead stairs was a rollercoaster, having movie nights in her backyard shed while standing on an old bureau holding up magazine pages lit by a flashlight, and playing baseball and dodgeball on the common.  It’s no wonder when asked the best time of Jeannette’s life, she replied, “When I was a kid.” When Jeannette’s siblings and their families came together over a meal during visits, the storytelling from their memories came pouring out resulting in much laughter and sometimes breaking out in song.

Jeannette and her husband, Wilfred, raised their three children in Putnam. Jeannette was a wonderful mother and fiercely protected her children. While raising them, she returned to work spending 15 years at Windham Container and 25 years as a bus driver for Putnam Board of Education until her retirement. 

Jeannette had three grandchildren, ecstatically welcoming them into her family. She always looked forward to seeing them and enjoyed any time spent with them, especially Christmas when the many gifts to them were torn open with anticipation and excitement, always a highlight of the holiday.

Jeannette was a lifelong bingo player rarely missing a week playing at her favorite church halls, mostly St Joseph’s in Grosvenordale. She also loved playing cards and belonged to a bowling league. She frequented Mohegan Sun and Foxwood’s Casinos and enjoyed dining out and visiting with other “regulars” at restaurants she patronized.

Jeannette was predeceased by her father, Lionel Brosseau, mother, Elizabeth (Caron) Girard, sister’s, Cecile (Girard) Defilippo, Charlotte (Girard) Defilippo, Theresa (Girard) Viglione andFlorence (Brosseau/Girard) Abram, brother, Roland “Mack” Girard and Jeannette’s former husband, Wilfred Roy, Jr. Jeannette is survived by her three children, Holly Roy (Allen Woodward), Glen Roy and Donna (Roy) Schute, three grandchildren, Stephanie, Spencer and Sadie Roy, her sister, Gertrude (Brosseau/Girard) Babbitt, many nieces, nephews and extended family.

Though her children thought Jeannette would live forever, always bouncing back from surgeries and other ailments, her “bionic” body finally gave out and we sadly lost the constant anchor in our lives. She will be painfully missed by her children, remembered with love and also through her life stories recently recorded in a book.

A graveside service will be held at a later date. For memorial guestbook, please visit www.GilmanAndValade.com