Pauline Cotnoir (née Lizotte)

Pauline Cotnoir (née Lizotte), “Teddy” to her late husband, died peacefully on Tuesday 18 June 2019, nineteen days past her 97^th birthday, with three of her eight children at her bedside. She had enjoyed visits by the far-flung others over the preceding weeks as the end drew near.

Pauline was born in 1922 in Putnam, Connecticut, the sixth child and youngest daughter of the late Isaac and Maria (Robillard) Lizotte. She was the last of her generation: Rita, Jeanne, Lorena, Lucille, Annette, and Gerard. Like her sisters she was a graduate of Putnam Catholic Academy. In 1944, she married Leo Cotnoir and was widowed by his death in 1995. Shortly after being married, the couple moved to Lafayette, Indiana where Leo was a graduate student at Purdue University and where their first child was born. They settled in Newark, Delaware in 1947 when Leo joined the faculty of the University of Delaware and they became communicants at the church of St. John the Baptist, now St. John-Holy Angels. Pauline had a full-time job raising their growing family, supporting their schooling, and for a brief time being a Cub Scout den mother. But she still had time to be a crackerjack Canasta player and to be a part of a small French-Canadian community in Newark. She and Leo were proud of their heritage and French was the lingua franca of the household for many years, at times being the only language allowed at the dinner table. A couple years after the death of her husband she sold the house the family had lived in for nearly 50 years to one of her children and joined her dear friend Jane Sinclair at an independent living facility in Wilmington where she remained until a fall forced her into full-time care. Mercifully, her time there was brief and she passed comfortably at the end of a long, full life.

Mrs. Cotnoir is survived by eight children, Leo (Glenda Blake) of Binghamton, New York, Marc (Marylou Skrotsky) of Fairfax, Virginia, Paulette of Newark, Delaware, Giselle Selestok (Kevin) of Raleigh, North Carolina, Louise Fitzgerald (Herbert) of Clayton, North Carolina, Ghislaine of Wayne, Pennsylvania; Claire (Henry Davies) of Mount Vernon, Washington and Jacqueline Hannaford (Peter) of Tampa, Florida;  her eight grandchildren are: Ryan of Fairfax, Virginia, son of Marc; Giselle’s three children, April Keroack (Christopher) of Bothell, Washington, Katherine Selestok of Raleigh, North Carolina, and David Selestok (Chanel Brown) of Durham, North Carolina; the two daughters of Ghislaine, Sarah Sinclair of Boston, Massachusetts, and Ahisha Stewart of Philadelphia; Jacqueline’s children, Rachael Hannaford and Rebecca Bolick (Amy) both of Tampa, Florida. And she leaves one great granddaughter Arwen Cabe of Bothell, Washington, child of April Keroack.

The family will be receiving friends at Holy Angels Church, 82 Possum Park Rd, Newark from 9:30 AM on Monday 24 June with a Mass of Christian Burial offered at 10:30 AM. Interment will follow at All Saints Cemetery, 6001 Kirkwood Highway, Wilmington.

Because of allergies, the family asks that no flowers be sent or brought but suggests donations to the Little Sisters of the Poor of Delaware (www.littlesistersofthepoordelaware.org) or to SPARC, a community-based day program for adults with life-long disabilities (www.sparcsolutions.org).