ROCKLAND – Leona May Pierpont died suddenly, yet peacefully, on Monday, May 21, 2018. After 93 years living life to the fullest she has gone to join her husband, Almond, in Heaven.

Leona was born April 5, 1925 in Camden to Clarence and Olive Haraden Wellman. Most of her life she lived in the house built by her grandfather. She was a 1943 graduate of Rockland High School, and in 1947 received her four-year RN Degree from Deaconess Hospital School of Nursing, Boston.

Her nursing career began doing home care with Eliza Steele through the Rockland District Nursing Association. Generous to a fault, Leona helped anyone and anywhere. If she saw a hole, she filled it, and if she saw a need, she met it.

She worked the graveyard shift at the hospital, and then spent countless hours volunteering for many organizations.

The list of groups that benefited from her giving nature were so many – they included Girl Scouts, Cub Scouts, Rebekahs and Odd Fellows, LAPM, LEA, RHS, and RDHS Alumni Association, and the local Chamber of Commerce, to name a few.

Leona was an RN for over 45 years, both at Knox Hospital and PMBC and was a member of the Nurses Guild. She was instrumental in starting the Meals-on-Wheels program, the Toy Library, the local Soup Kitchen, and AIO. A very important place for her was the church, Pratt Memorial United Methodist Church, now Aldersgate United Methodist Church, where she taught Sunday school, sang in the choir, rang bells in the bell choir, and of course assisted with any project they had.

Through the years she prepared, or helped to prepare, countless pots of beans, gallons of spaghetti and soup, thousands of loaves of cranberry and pumpkin bread and cookies. She was always available as the family “taxi.” In her spare time, she loved to attend high school football games and other events for her children, grands and great-grands. She had many hobbies – knitting was a big one — but her favorite hobby was to find a friend or family member and gallivant around the state.

Leona was predeceased by her parents, her sister Mary Harris, her husband, Almond Pierpont, her granddaughters Betsy Dates and Sherry McLean, and her great-granddaughter Danielle Dates. She is survived by her children Susan and Chet Dates, Nathan and Brenda Pierpont, Nancy and Harry Fitzgerald, Sylvia Pierpont and Martha and Sheldon McLean as well as her grandchildren Dan, Dave, Russell, Joyce, Tom, Mike, Jen, Mark, Erin, Damon, Mariah, Shane, Stephanie, Molly (Evelyn), Nina, and 20 great-grandchildren, including one born three weeks ago. As the matriarch of this Pierpont branch, she will be sadly missed, but a part of her lives on in every family member.

Visiting hours will be held from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m., Monday, May 28, 2018 at Aldersgate United Methodist Church, 15 Wesley Lane, Rockland, where a funeral service will be held at 2 p.m., Tuesday, May 29th. The Reverend Linda Campbell-Marshall will officiate. Interment will follow at Village Cemetery in Thomaston.

Those who wish may make memorial donations to Meals-on-Wheels, 46 Summer Street, Rockland, ME 04841 or Aldersgate United Methodist Church, 15 Wesley Lane, Rockland, ME 04841.

To share a story or memory with Leona's family, please visit their Book of Memories at www.bchfh.com. Arrangements are in the care of Burpee, Carpenter & Hutchins Funeral Home, 110 Limerock Street, Rockland.