Elsie F. Damren

LAKE WALES, Fla. – Elsie F. Damren, 99, of Lake Wales, and a former longtime resident of Mount Vernon, Maine, died peacefully June 8, 2020 at Grace Healthcare. She had lived for the last three years with her daughter in Lake Wales, Fla.Born Oct. 30, 1920 in Southampton, England, Elsie was the youngest surviving child of the late Ellen (Barfoot) and Jesse Stacey. She grew up and was educated in Southampton. Then, like so many of her generation, Elsie’s life was forever changed by World War II. She shared stories about life during the Blitz, like sleeping in air-raid shelters and watching dog-fights in the sky above her workplace. She gave birth to her oldest child, and spent his first weeks with him, on a country estate away from the bombing.But the event that really changed her life was meeting John Damren, an American serviceman in England helping prepare for D-day.They wed in England and she returned to the states with him to begin her married life and to live in many different places as he continued his military career.Elsie and John retired to Mount Vernon where they were active in the Readfield Grange, Senior Citizens, and the Maine Gladiolus Society and she was a member of the VFW Auxiliary. She attended the Dunn’s Corner Baptist Church. In 1999, after 51 years of married life, Elsie and John renewed their vows before numerous friends and family.In the early 2000s, the Maine winters got to be too much for them and they began spending winters in Florida. In 2007 they made a final move to Lake Wales and enjoyed the warmer weather, dinner parties, card games and gardening.Elsie was preceded in death by her husband; her son-in-law Thomas Travers; her sisters, Lilian and her husband George Faithful, Winifred and husband Harry Frampton, Dorothy and husband George Primmer, and her brother Ernest and wife Muriel, and by brothers- and sisters-in-law, Doris and Hansen Carver, Glenwood Damren Jr, Clyde Clift, Rachel Damren, and Alice and Carl Prescott; and by two nieces and two nephews on the American side, and probably more in England.Elsie will be greatly missed by her son David Hurst, her daughter Linda Travers, both of Lake Wales, Fla., son John (Barbara) Damren, Jr. of Hallowell and daughter Katherine (Phillip) Lewis of Mount. She is also survived by sister-in-law Jean Clift of Barnesville, Ga. and brothers-in-law, Richard Damren, and Floyd (Alice) Damren, of Belgrade, Maine; and many nieces and nephews. Elsie leaves seven grandchildren; and numerous great-grandchildren.Due to the Covid 19 virus, a memorial service will be scheduled at a later date.The family would also like to express our deepest appreciation to the nurses and staff at Grace Health Care and Lake Wales Medical Center for the compassionate care they provided to Elsie and our family in her final days


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