Genevieve C. Luneau

Peabody – Mrs. Genevieve C. (Philips) Luneau, of Peabody, died Tuesday, July 15, 2014 at Lahey Medical Center in Peabody. She was 87.

Gene, as she was affectionately known, was born in Waltham on June 24, 1927, a daughter of the late Thomas and Adeline (Izzo) Philips. She was a graduate of Saint Mary's High School in Waltham.

On April 22, 1950, Gene married New Hampshire native John R. Luneau in Saint Mary's Church, Waltham and the couple soon made their home in Arlington. John's work took the family to southern Virginia and Northampton before returning to the Boston area in 1964 where they settled in Weston to raise their family.

In 1982 Gene and John moved to Center Harbor, New Hampshire where they spent many happy years with their large and growing family. In Center Harbor she belonged to Saint Charles Borromeo Parish. Among her hobbies and interests were sewing, bridge, vegetable gardening, cooking, movies, collecting angels and bears, playing with her grandchildren and socializing with family and friends.

Gene loved her home on Lake Winnipesaukee where she found her greatest enjoyment being the consummate hostess to her family. Joyful memories were found in the simplest of adventures: boating on the lake, swimming, blueberry picking or enjoying the beauty of a New Hampshire winter.

In addition to proudly wearing her mantle of matriarch of the family she was a devoted, determined and selfless partner to John as illness required her constant love, care and attention for the thirteen years before his death on July 27, 2005. The pair had moved to Brooksby Village in Peabody four years earlier where Gene soon found a new circle of friends and was active in the community's Red Hat Society.

She leaves her children, John P. Luneau and his wife, Kathy, of Washington Crossing, Pennsylvania, Kathleen Simons and her husband, John, of Danvers, Nancy Herbst and her husband, Timothy, of Tempe, Arizona and Christine Normoyle of San Jose, California and her grandchildren, John Zachary Luneau, Evan Simons, Elliot Simons, Katrina Herbst, Meredith Herbst, Christopher Herbst, Benjamin Normoyle and Sarah Normoyle.

Gene was also the sister of the late Marie L. Philips.

Family and friends will honor and remember Genevieve's life by gathering for calling hours in The Joyce Funeral Home, 245 Main Street (Rte. 20), Waltham on Monday, July 21st from 4 to 8 p.m. and again at 9 a.m. on Tuesday morning before leaving in procession to Saint Mary's Church, 133 School Street, Waltham where her Funeral Mass will be celebrated at 10 a.m. Burial will follow in Calvary Cemetery, Waltham.

Memorial donations may be made to the Home for Little Wanderers, 271 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115 [ www.thehome.org ].