MICHELLE F. GRINNELL
GRAND ISLE---Michelle Francine (Duhamel) (Draï) Grinnell, 76, of Grand Isle, Maine, formerly of West Haven and Milford, Connecticut, died Oct. 5, 2011 at a Van Buren, Maine health care facility.
She was the wife of the late Robert Omer Grinnell (b. 1932-2004) and the late Georges Joseph Draï (b. 1936-65).
The daughter of the late Modeste (Lesénéchal) (Duhamel) (Bouteiller) Gicquel (1899-1985) and the late Gilles François Pierre Armand Duhamel (1890-1938) was born Sept. 30, 1935 in St-James, la Manche, Basse-Normandie, France.
Even though she had to leave school at age 14 because of post-war poverty, she enjoyed reading histories and biographies in her spare time.
Twenty-two years after seeing American soldiers buried at “The Brittany American Cemetery and Memorial” in her hometown in 1944, she married American soldier Robert Grinnell in 1966 and moved to America.
She worked at many places, including Kimberly Diner and the Bridgeport Flyer, both in Milford, Conn.
She is survived by a son, Joseph Normand Grinnell of the Lille neighborhood, Grand Isle, Maine; a daughter-in-law, Colleen Grinnell of Worcester, Mass.; grandson Edgar Gilles-Drai Grinnell Jr. and his wife Jessica of Worcester; grandson Byron Grinnell, also of Worcester; and a step-brother, Hubert Gicquel and his wife Martine, of Mamers, la Sarthe, Pays-de-Loire, France.
In addition to her parents and husbands, she was predeceased by a son, Edgar Gilles-Drai Grinnell Sr.; her grandparents, Pierre Duhamel, Marie (Janvier) Duhamel, Victor Lesénéchal, and Elisa (Rault) Lesénéchal; and siblings, Simone (Duhamel) Deshaut, Juliette (Duhamel) Gerard, Pierre Duhamel, and Louis Duhamel.
In lieu of a funeral service in Maine, her son feels the best way to honor her memory is to visit her hometown of St-James, France, and bury her ashes with her father in Montjoie-St.-Martin with a view of the abbey, le Mont-St-Michel.
Arrangements are a service of Ouellette-Thibault Funeral Home, 118 High St., Van Buren.