Elaine L. Braunfels

courageous eighteen-year battle with Parkinson’s Disease.

Elaine was born on September 18, 1947. She was one of thirteen children born to Roger and

Jeanette Turcotte.

Elaine attended Litchfield Academy and graduated from Monmouth Academy. Not a traditional

student, Elaine started her first year of college when she was 38. While both working and raising

a family, Elaine earned a bachelor of science in art education from the University of Southern

Maine where she received High Honors.

In January of 1970, Elaine walked into the Chuck Wagon restaurant in Brunswick where she

met the love of her life and her best friend, Richard and they were married for fifty-years.

Elaine worked many different jobs prior to her teaching career. She started at Woolworths at the

age of sixteen and later worked at Pioneer Plastics, Depositors Trust Bank, and Johnson

Associates in Auburn, garnering the affection of her coworkers every place she worked. Elaine

shared her passion for art when she took a job in the RSU#4 school system where she touched

hundreds of lives teaching K-8 art for seventeen years.

Elaine loved an adventure. She always jumped in the ocean, and swam out further than

anybody should, no matter how frigid the water. Her quest for sand dollars was a tribute to her

mother, and she acquired a massive collection. Elaine climbed and painted almost every inch of

coastline in Maine. She was especially fond of Pemaquid Point as showcased in her watercolor

paintings.

Elaine’s true joy in life came from her grandchildren. She often joked with her daughter’s saying,

“I wish I could have skipped you girls and gone straight to the grandkids.” The grandkids

enjoyed their adventures with Gram both in Maine and at Gram and Grump’s winter home in

Venice, Florida.

Elaine enjoyed playing card games and poker, painting and sculpting, reading for hours at a

time, riding her bike, and above all else, shopping at TjMaxx.

Elaine will always be remembered for only knowing the first three lines of every song, breaking

into song at a second’s notice, her perfect apple pies, and her favorite saying, “This is a day for

making daydreams.”

She was predeceased by her brothers Robert, and Micheal, and her parents, Roger and

Jeannette Turcotte.

She is survived by her husband Richard, her daughters Kate Reagan and husband Michael,

Jennifer Braunfels and husband Richard Wardwell, four grandchildren, Alex, James, Maxim, and

MacKenzee, her two surrogate children Jeannette and Jimmy Schram, sister Jackie Barrett,

brother Bert Turcotte and his wife Pat, sister Alice McPeake and husband Mac McPeake, sister

Judy Schram and husband Bud, sister Susie Poppish and husband Dave, sister Janie Connors,

sister Denise Sweet and husband Gary, brother Tom Turcotte and wife Pam, Roger Jr. Turcotte

and his wife Becky, and the baby of the family, Peggy Veroneau and husband Steve. She is also

survived by many nieces and nephews, as well as great nieces and nephews, and great-great

nieces and nephews.

Memories and condolences may be shared at www.lynchbrothers.com.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to the Michael J. Fox Foundation in

her honor. If you’d like to offer condolences, please join the family at the American Legion Post

181 at 235 Plains Rd. in Litchfield on Sunday October 3rd from 11-1