Obituaries

Gwilla Bennett died peacefully November 18, at Ball Hospice House in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. She was born on January 28, 1933, in Salisbury, North Carolina, daughter of Hugh and Julia (Snyder) Davis. She was a student of music at Murray State College (Ky.) when she married Leon Bennett in September 1954.

After graduation, the couple lived in various places as Leon pursued a teaching career. In 1967, they moved to Madison, Wisconsin, where Gwilla worked at the State Hospital as a psychiatric aide, a job she found very rewarding and at which she excelled. In 1974, they moved to Sault Ste. Marie, where Leon in a career change became manager of A.E. Mackie & Son Jewelers. Gwilla took a job as a respiratory therapist at War Memorial Hospital. Gradually she developed Multiple Sclerosis and was forced to retire.

Gwilla’s great love was music. She was an accomplished cellist and enjoyed playing in symphony orchestras and pit orchestra for musicals and operas. She had many interests: gardening, hiking in the forests in her adopted home of Upper Michigan. She was an excellent seamstress and an avid reader. Above all she was a loving and understanding mother to her three children. She valiantly fought the various illnesses that plagued her in later years. She was gentle and soft spoken but had a will of iron.

Gwilla is survived by her husband, Leon; son, James (Deb) Bennett of Friendship, Wisconsin; and daughter, Diana Bennett of Madison; as well as grandchildren, Michelle Sauro, Kelley Atkinson, Jerome Henry, and Lore Bennett; and great-granddaughter, Alex Steffes.

Gwilla was preceded in death by daughter, Evelyn; her sister, Elizabeth; and her parents.

At her request there will be no services.

Memorial contributions may be sent to Hospice of the EUP, 308 West 12th Avenue, Sault Se. Marie, Michigan or The Soo Theater, 534 Ashmun Street, Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan.