Alta M. Yelle, 93
Dateline: Norton, MA
Alta M. (Estabrook) Yelle, 93, a longtime resident of Norton, died on Friday April 26, 2013 at The Neville Center at Fresh Pond in Cambridge, where she had resided for several months. She was the beloved wife of the late Henri A. Yelle.
Alta will be deeply missed by her surviving family, especially her loving daughter and son-in-law, Henrietta A. Yelle and Christopher Engstrom, and her cherished grandson Henri Paris Yelle Engstrom, all of Lexington, as well as by numerous nieces and nephews, great nieces and nephews, and dozens of friends who were touched by her graciousness, her unfailing good humor, and her boundless love.
Born in Houlton, Maine on February 8, 1920, Alta was the only child of the late Roland and Inez (Randall) Estabrook. She was a 1941 graduate of Colby College in Waterville, Maine and received her Master of Education from Boston University in 1953.
Her first teaching job was in Moro, Maine where she taught Kindergarten through 8th grade in a one-room schoolhouse during the summer of 1940.
Her long career as a high school English teacher led to positions in Island Falls and Houlton, Maine; Great Neck, New York; and Norton, Foxboro, Framingham, and Brockton, Massachusetts. After retiring from teaching when her daughter was born, Mrs. Yelle began working in the Circulation Department at the Wheaton College Library in the late 1960s and retired from this second career in 1986.
Alta was a talented cook and wonderful hostess, who made entertaining look effortless. Her cheerful nature and ability to find the positive in everything and everyone she met were well-known and greatly admired. Most of all, she will be remembered for her devotion to her family and friends of all ages with whom she always had time to talk, laugh, and share a story over a cup of tea.
Her Funeral Mass, to which relatives and friends are cordially invited, will be celebrated on Saturday, May 4 at 9 A.M. at St. Mary’s Church, 1 Power St., Norton. Burial will follow at the Norton Center Cemetery, Pine Street, Norton.
Visiting hours will be held on Friday, May 3 from 5 – 8 P.M. at the Norton Memorial Funeral Home, 19 Clapp St (off Route 140, Taunton Ave), Norton.
Remembrances may be made in Alta Yelle’s name to the Wilfrid and Eveline Yelle French Scholarship Fund, c/o Norton High School, 66 West Main St, Norton MA 02766.
To send Alta’s family a message of condolence, please visit www.nortonmemorial.com