Marie Rose (Robidoux) Audy, passed away at her home surrounded by her family, after suffering a stroke in April. She was born in Lawrence and was the daughter of the late Rose A. (Betit) and Alfred Robidoux, originally of Quebec, Canada. She was predeceased by her husband of twenty-eight years, Armand Joseph Audy, who passed away on June 28, 1976.
Marie was a generous, responsible, loving, and hardworking woman who spoke both Canadian French and English and attended Sacred Heart School through high school and Sacred Heart Parish until it was closed by the Diocese. To help her widowed mother, Marie took on a paper route, controversial for a girl at that time. After graduating from Sacred Heart High School, she worked braiding cord for parachutes and then joined the new Women’s Army Air Corps. She graduated from the WAAC Army Administrator School at Sal Ross College in Alpine, Texas in 1943, was assigned to duty in Nashville, Tennessee and then promoted to Corporal in 1944. At Suison-Fairfield Army Air Base in CA, she received overseas training then shipped to Hickam Field, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii where she worked as Clerk General in the Adjutant General’s Department classifying confidential and secret correspondence. She received a Medal of Good Conduct, was promoted to Sergeant and honorably discharged October 17, 1945.
In 1948 she married Armand J. Audy, also a former Army Sergeant and they had three children. Marie and Armand had a wonderful social circle of friends and were lifetime members of the American Legion, Knights of Columbus, Andover Sportsman’s Club and the Benign Protectorate of Elks. Marie was also a member of the Rainbow Club and the Third Order at Sacred Heart Parish.
A skilled seamstress, Marie taught her daughters to sew. For many years she worked in the Accounting Office of the Lawrence General Hospital and after retiring enjoyed exciting trips with friends and family to Alaska, New Zealand, Ireland, France, Spain, England, Iceland and in the USA. Like her mother before her, she loved to play her favorite card game, 45s. She also volunteered to help clean Sacred Heart Church, stocked shelves for Neighbors in Need, and for years every Friday helped run the Lawrence General’s Thrift Shop. After Armand’s death, she continued maintaining the family pool where family and friends gather all summer to enjoy barbeques and swimming. She had a full and rewarding life.
She is survived by her two daughters, Joyce and her husband, Egils Zarins of Merrimac and Norma and her husband, Paul Gomes of Tewksbury; a son, Thomas and his wife Kimberly Audy of South Hampton, NH; fourteen grandchildren; five great-grandchildren; a sister-in-law, Henrietta (Dembroski) Robidoux; niece, Linda Scherig of Andover and many nieces and nephews. She was also predeceased by her brothers, Alfred J., twin brother, Ernest B., Ernest J., Arthur J., Rudolph and Joseph P. Robidoux.
A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated on Wednesday, July 9th at 10:00 a.m. in St. Augustine’s Church, 43 Essex Street, Andover. Visiting hours will be held on Tuesday, July 8th in the Burke-Magliozzi Funeral Home, 390 N. Main St., Andover from 4 – 8 p.m. Interment with Military Honors will follow at Sacred Heart Cemetery, Corbett St., Andover. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Marie’s memory to Neighbors in Need, 276 Essex St, Lawrence, MA 01840 or to the American Cancer Society, 30 Speen Street, Framingham, MA 01701. For more information and to send online condolences, please visit, www.burkemagliozzi.com.