Adrienne M. Dubois

Adrienne M. Dubois, a retired machinist who worked for multiple companies during her

lifetime while raising five children, died Feb. 27 of natural causes in Winchendon,

Massachusetts. She was 93. 

Born Adrienne Bernier on Jan. 11, 1930 in Saint-Jacques, New Brunswick, Canada, Mrs.

Dubois grew up in nearby Edmundston, New Brunswick, Canada. After completing high school,

she earned a certificate at the local teachers college and went on to teach 5th  grade. 

In the mid-1950s, she moved to Hartford, Connecticut with her late husband Louis

Dubois, who sought a more stable lifestyle after the potato farming business he owned in Maine

with his brothers fell on hard times. She first worked for the Travelers Insurance Company,

where she earned kudos from her English-speaking supervisors when she translated a document

written in French – her language from childhood.            

Mrs. Dubois was a very devout Catholic, a parishioner of Annunciation Parish in Gardner,

Massachusetts and a member of the Daughters of Isabella.

Throughout her life, Mrs. Dubois garnered a well-earned reputation among her family and

church friends alike as a superb craftswoman. She excelled at knitting, crochet, ceramics,

counted cross-stitch, needlepoint, sewing and quilting. A proud member of the Acadian Quilters’

Guild (Quilters’ Guild Acadienne), she made multiple quilts that were used for various

fundraisers. Also, as a member of the St. George Catholic Church community in Guilford,

Connecticut, where she lived for a short time, she knitted hundreds of Duduza dolls (the name

comes from the Swahili word for “comfort”), that were distributed by the church to sick children

in Haiti.

She was also very proud of the personalized jean jackets she made for many family

members. In addition to the quilts and dolls, she also made rosaries and prayer shawls.           

Louis Dubois, her beloved husband of 57 years died in 2011. Mrs. Dubois is survived by

five children: James Dubois of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (Mary); Marcel Dubois of Ft Myers,

Florida (Elise); Louise Dubois of Athol, Massachusetts; Denise Dubois of St. Louis, Missouri;

and Nicole Dubois of Guilford, Connecticut (Jon). She also had nine grandchildren; James

Dubois Jr., of Washington, D.C.; Christopher and Elizabeth Dubois of Oklahoma City,

Oklahoma; Morgan Kovachevich of Vacaville, California; Courtney Kovachevich of Ballwin,

Missouri; Jacques Dubois of New York, New York; Paul Dubois of Atlanta, Georgia; Alec

Dubois of Alexandria, Virginia; and Stephanie Pederson of Athol, Massachusetts. She also

leaves one great grandchild, Nathan Gonzales of Athol, Massachusetts.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be held Monday, March 6, 2023 at 1 PM in Holy Spirit Church, 50 Lovewell Street, Gardner, MA.

Calling hours in Stone-Ladeau Funeral Home, 343 Central Street, Winchendon are Monday from 10 AM to 12 Noon preceding the mass.

Burial will be in St. Thomas Aquinas Cemetery, Madawaska, Maine in the spring.

Memorial donations may be made to Catholic Charities Worcester County, 10 Hammond Street, Worcester, MA 01610.

To leave an online condolence, please visit www.stone-ladeau.com           

Kevin J. Mack, Walter C. Taylor and Douglas M. Stone, directors