Frances B. (Bunker) Pilch, 84, of Salem, NH passed away peacefully on Sunday, April 27, 2014 at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston. Frances was born on April 30, 1929 in South Gouldsboro, Maine. She attended schools in South Gouldsboro and Winter Harbor, Maine and graduated from Maine Central Institute in Lewiston, Maine in 1947. There she met and married Frank W. Pilch of Lawrence, MA, her husband of 49 years. Frances worked in the Lawrence area, retiring from the payroll department at Lawrence General Hospital in 1989 to spend more time with her grandson, Matthew.
Frances retained her love of the seacoast and rural areas of New England. She loved nature and especially enjoyed watching the birds and deer near her home with her cat Alley. One of her favorite activities was picking cranberries and blueberries. Frances was a talented cook and homemaker, accomplished in quilt-making, knitting, sewing, rug-braiding, and wreath-making. She was particularly known for her homemade pies, cranberry sauce, bread-and-butter pickles, pierogi, and hand-grated horseradish, that she generously shared with friends and family. She was an avid reader who had a lifelong appreciation for the poetry of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Robert Frost.
She attended St. Matthew’s Church in Windham and for many years was involved in numerous charitable activities, including serving as a volunteer at the Shepherd’s Pantry food pantry in Windham. She was a member of the Catholic Daughters of America from 1959 until 2002, serving as treasurer of the local organization until it disbanded that year.
Frances was preceded in death by her husband, Frank, in 1996. She is survived by daughters Julianne Gacioch and her husband Richard, of North Andover, MA; Janice Pilch of Metuchen, NJ; and Joan Pilch of Salem, NH; son John Pilch of Salem, NH; and grandson Matthew McCarron of Melrose, MA; by her brother Walter Bunker of Ellsworth, Maine; sister Dorothy Dubowick of Scarborough, Maine; and many nieces and nephews.
Relatives and friends are invited to attend calling hours on Thursday, May 1, from 4-7 pm at the Douglas & Johnson Funeral Home, 214 Main Street, Salem, NH. A funeral mass will be held on Friday, May 2, at 11 am at St. Matthew Church, 2 Searles Road, Windham, NH. Frances will be buried at a later date in South Gouldsboro, Maine in the Bunker Memorial Cemetery, behind the house where she was born.