passed away October 6th, 2021 after a long and fruitful life. Her family moved to
Massachusetts when she was just a toddler. Being raised in a French Roman Catholic family
and taught by nuns she graduated high school in an era when there were only 10 other girls in
her graduating class. All through most of her school years she learned to play the violin. A
violin she ultimately owned and played the rest of her life. She was such a gifted violinist and
her children were blessed to be her appreciative audience.
She married her husband, Paul Joseph LaPointe, at the tender age of 19. They were married
for 57 years before Paul preceded her in passing in 2006.
Both of them were raised in French/English bilingual families and retained that diversity through
their lives, occasionally to the chagrin of their children!
Together they raised 5 children: Jeanne LaPointe lives in Durham, NC with her husband, John
Benedetto, Paul LaPointe lives in Mt. Dora, FL with his wife, Nancy, Donna Burrell lives in
Reno, NV with her husband Jim, Karen Sklanka lives in Roswell, GA with her husband John
and Douglas LaPointe lives in Gainesville, GA with his wife Tracy. She also had 6 grandchildren
6 great grandchildren. Although she was not the youngest, she had 4 siblings, all of whom
preceded her in passing.
Trudy devoted her life to raising her family. They raised their children in Miami, FL when Paul
was hired as a flight engineer for National Airlines and transferred there. She was a longtime
founding member of the Starlighters, a group started by and comprised of the wives of
National Airlines flight engineers. Every year they chose a charity to raise donations for through
various craft and baking type sales. Growing up in the era she did, a great value was placed
on women developing their homemaking skills, including sewing, which she passed on to all of
her daughters. It wasn’t until she was in her 70’s that she decided to try her hand at quilting
and created quite a few beautiful hand quilted quilts.
In retirement, she and Paul built a new home and life in Lady Lake, FL and enjoyed traveling far
and wide throughout this country and Canada in their RV. Trudy often mentioned how much
she loved those traveling years. For awhile they even joined a square dancing group and loved
every minute of it.
Trudy loved living life and made it known she knew she’d had a very good life.
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