Audrey Sigrid Knudsen, 84, a longtime resident of New Bedford, Massachusetts, died peacefully at the Oakhill HealthCare Center in Middleboro, Massachusetts, on Friday, February 21, 2020 with her daughter at her side. She was as courageous facing her illness in her final years as she was throughout her life.
Born in Fairhaven, Massachusetts, Sigrid was the daughter of Arne Knudsen and Alice (Nolin) Knudsen. She attended Fairhaven High School and as a young mother went on to complete high school in an evening program. She later graduated from the Kinyon-Campbell Business School. In mid-life, she went to college, graduating from Bristol Community College, then earned her BA in Multidisciplinary Studies along with her elementary teacher certification from Southeastern Massachusetts University.
Over the course of her life, she worked in a number of public service jobs including as a driver’s education instructor, a half-way house counselor, a city hall clerk and a coordinator of senior citizens for the New Bedford Council for Aging where she conducted seniors on day and overnight trips to cultural venues. One of her favorite jobs was serving as an Arts Performance Coach for New Bedford Public Schools. In that role, along with a team of colleagues, she travelled from school to school, engaging elementary students in a variety of visual and performing arts enrichment projects— puppet shows, drama productions and visual arts projects including a series of large painted murals which still grace the walls of schools in the city.
Later in life, she worked as an elder caregiver and companion. For one of her private cases, Sigrid travelled to Tucson, Arizona, and New York City, in service to Miss Katharine Ordway (of the 3M corporation) patroness of the arts who was known as “The Lady Who Saved The Prairies” for her sponsorship of the Nature Conservancy.
An avid reader, Sigrid found great strength and succor in poetry as well as in the essays of Ralph Waldo Emerson. She was also an artist and spent many hours reveling in the paintings of the Masters including her favorite, Vincent Van Gogh. One time on a visit to the Arts Institute of Chicago, she was so mesmerized by Van Gogh’s Self-Portrait that she had to be reminded by the museum guard it was closing time.
Her abiding love of literature and the arts was expressed through her membership in local library book-clubs, university study groups, and art groups including the Bierstadt Art Society. One of her drawings of the figure of Prince Henry the Navigator as depicted in the statue on Pope’s Island was featured in a local arts calendar publication. She was delighted to reconnect with her original classmates from Fairhaven High School and be included in their alumni gatherings.
Sigrid was a devoted mother and grandmother to her cherished twin granddaughters who knew her as Marmou. A life-long lover of nature, some of her favorite memories were conducting her granddaughters on nature walks, beach combing excursions, and picnics under the blossoming cherry trees in D.C.
She is survived by her daughter, Shelley Nituama (Hall), her twin granddaughters Larissa (Lacey) Pasco and Rosalea (Rosey) Pasco, of Annapolis, Maryland, as well as several nieces and nephews, and cousins.
She was preceded in death by her infant son, Clifford Hall, and her children, Michael Hall, Donna Hall and Glen Hall. She was also preceded in death by her siblings, Irene (Knudsen) Medeiros and Arne A. Knudsen, as well as a half-brother, Reidar Maroy.
Audrey Sigrid’s family would like to thank the staff of Oakhill HealthCare Center and Kindred Hospice for their compassionate care and support during her final years and days.
A memorial service and celebration of life is being planned for late spring in New Bedford. For date, directions and guestbook, please visit www.saundersdwyer.com.