Lois Pierce Osier, of Enfield Conn., died on Aug. 10 with her family by her side.
Born on April 16, 1924, she was the only child of Howard C. and Effie Davis Pierce. She grew up on the Pierce Farm at the corner of Town Farm and Abbe Roads in the Hazardville section of town in Connecticut. As a farm girl she learned about persistence and hard work. When a shed filled with recently harvested tobacco blew down in the hurricane of September 1938, she help salvage what they could of the crop.
After graduating from Enfield High School in 1941, Lois worked for nearly a year at the Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. in Springfield earning $16 a week. She then attended the Hartford Secretarial School for a year after which she was promptly employed at the Airport Department of Pratt & Whitney as a stenographer in the personnel office. She worked for a short time at Hartford Hospital, and very briefly at the Hartford YMCA before return to Pratt. There Lois met a mechanic from the Maine coast who wanted more than his share of the rationed gas coupons she was responsible for distributing. Theodore Osier didn’t get the coupons, but he and Lois were married on Aug. 23, 1947 and bought a small house in Enfield, Conn.
Lois continued to work at Pratt until 1951 when she left to become a fulltime homemaker and care for a new baby. This was the beginning of many years as a caregiver. A second son was born two years later. In 1955 the young family moved to Manchester for a bigger house and good schools.
As her sons became more independent, Lois’s husband experienced heart problems such that her caregiving focused on him. Shortly after the younger son finished college in 1975, Theodore died. Within a year, Lois built a house on part of her parents’ land back in Enfield and began providing increasing levels of care for them and for her uncle, Ernest Pierce.
Once her elders had all passed on, Lois continued care giving to the larger community. She was an active member of the Hazardville United Methodist Church, the Enfield Historical Society with particular interest in the Wallop School which she had attended, and the Four Town Land Trust. She was a hospice volunteer with Home & Community Health Services, and assisted with providing lunch at the Mark Twain Center. Lois also spent time just being a good neighbor visiting and lending a hand, taking something she had baked, or helping wash the dishes. And always being a good listener. In 1992 she received Honorable Mention as an Enfield Outstanding Citizen by the Enfield Jaycees.
In addition to her community involvement, Lois was a member of the local Red Hat Society, and took a variety of trips with friends or sponsored by the Enfield Senior Center. She also attended lots of presentations and classes on topics ranging from genealogy to rose care to cake decorating.
Lois is survived by son, Donald of New Harbor; son, Carl and partner Steve Collins of Lee’s Summit, Mo.; cousin, Timothy McGuire and partner Mary Joaquin of W. Suffield, Conn.; and many other relatives and her extended church family.
Relatives and friends may join the family for a visiting hour from 9:30 – 10:30 a.m., Sat., Aug. 13 at Leete-Stevens Enfield Chapels, 61 South Rd., Enfield, Conn. A funeral service will immediately follow at 10:30 at the funeral home. Burial will be held at the convenience of the family.
Memorial donations in Lois’s memory may be made to the Recreation Program at Blair Manor, 612 Hazard Ave., Enfield, CT 06082; Visiting Nurses c/o Hospice, 8 Keynote Dr., Vernon, CT 06066; or Enfield Historical Society, P.O. Box 586, Enfield, CT 06083.
For information or to leave online expressions of sympathy please visit, www.leetestevens.com.
