Stella (Kopanon) Gallant of Winchester, Massachusetts passed away at Lahey Hospital in Burlington, after a brief period of declining health, on April 9, 2024. She was 99 years old.
Stella was born in Boston to parents Michael and Camille (Massura) Kopanon, the eldest of five children. She grew up in Gloucester Massachusetts, attending Gloucester public schools and Greek school. She received a bachelor’s degree in 1946 from Salem Teachers College (Now Salem State University), where, among many other activities, she was a member of the glee club and the choir, and senior class president. After college she taught for a few years in Gloucester and Arlington, then married her college sweetheart, Bob Gallant, in 1949. They moved to Winchester in 1956, where they raised two sons, Dean and Glenn.
In Winchester she continued her lifelong enthusiasm for tennis and won many tournaments. She was a firm believer in the value (and pleasure) of exercise, and encouraged Bob to take up tennis; he in turn encouraged her to take up golf, activities they both enjoyed into their eighties, together and with many friends. She and Bob were also decades-long members of the Winchester Badminton Club.
They were dedicated parishioners at the Parish of the Epiphany, where Stella sang in the choir for many years. Other volunteer activities filled her days: the EnKa Society (57 years), the gift shop at the Winchester Hospital, and co-teaching many courses with Bob at the Harvard Institute for Learning in Retirement. In 1985 she and Bob completed a two-year goal to walk every street in Winchester.
She was an irrepressible optimist and remained in close contact with family and friends throughout her life, even as passings left her the sole remaining member of her family’s generation. Her husband Bob died in 2016 and son Glenn in 2019. She lived in her home in Winchester until the last few weeks of her life, as her own mother had done in Gloucester. She is survived by son Dean and his wife Lauren of Kittery Point, Maine, and eight nieces and nephews and their children and grandchildren.
There will be a memorial service at the Parish of the Epiphany, 70 Church Street in Winchester, at 1 p.m. on Saturday June 15th. In lieu of flowers contributions may be made to the Parish of the Epiphany or to the charity of your choice.