Needham – Mrs. Irene M. (LaCroix) Chevrette, of Needham, formerly of Waltham and Watertown, died Saturday, March 19, 2016 at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. She was 90.
Irene was born in Newton on October 4, 1925, the youngest of six children born to the late Hosanna N. and Louise A. (Bedard) LaCroix. She was a 1944 graduate of Newton High School and after that went to work as a 'Rosie the Riveter' at the Charlestown Naval Shipyard where more than eighty ships were built and dozens more repaired during World War II.
After the war she went to work as a switchboard operator for the New England Telephone Company and soon after that met the love of her life, Watertown native Gerard A. Chevrette. On May 8, 1948 they were married at Saint-Jean-l'Évangéliste Church in Newton and two years later made Watertown their home. In 1984 they moved to Waltham.
After her children were settled in school Irene went to work for the Reece Corporation in Waltham where she retired as the secretary to the company's president following a thirty-five year career.
Irene and Gerard loved traveling, around the country and around the world. Their children remember with great fondness the cross-country summer trips in the family camper where, over the years, they visited almost every state in the Union. Irene loved the sound of Big Band music, listening to WBZ radio when she was working in the kitchen and watching her favorite team, the Boston Bruins.
"Having someone to love is family . . . having somewhere to go is home . . . having both is a blessing" . . . Irene Chevrette's ninety year life was a blessing.
In addition to her husband of sixty-eight years, Gerard, she leaves her children, Louise M. Baduski and her husband, Edwin, of Marlborough, Denise C. Arsenault and her husband, William, of Framingham and Sandy C. Hughes of Needham; her grandchildren, Kristen Duehring, Elise Miranda, Courtney Moyer, Matthew Hughes and Renée Dempsey; her great-grandchildren, Victoria Peters, Jack Duehring, Vivian Miranda and Hailey Hughes and many nieces and nephews.
She was also a sister of the late Mary McDonald, Ann "Teda" McCabe, Joseph LaCroix, Eleanor Parker and Edward LaCroix.
Family and friends will honor and remember Irene's life by gathering for calling hours in The Joyce Funeral Home, 245 Main Street (Rte. 20), Waltham on Wednesday, March 23rd from 4 to 8 p.m. and again at 10 a.m. on Thursday morning before leaving in procession to Our Lady Comforter of the Afflicted Church, 880 Trapelo Road, Waltham where her Funeral Liturgy will be celebrated at 11 a.m. Burial will be in Calvary Cemetery, Waltham.