WINSLOW – The Rev. Eleanor “Ellie” S. Duhamel died on Aug. 22, 2021, at the age of 78, of complications resulting from pancreatic cancer. She died peacefully at home accompanied by her husband, the Rev. Marcel P. Duhamel, and her daughter, Melissa Bailey.

“Ellie”, as she preferred to be called, is survived by her husband; her brother, Donald E. Smith; her son, Thomas C. Flanagan, and his wife, Leslie, her daughter Melissa, her son Peter Sykes and his wife, Audra; her stepsons Marcel C. Duhamel and wife, Jacqueline, and Paul E. Duhamel, and his wife, Tess; and her grandchildren Samuel Wiese, Stephen Bailey, Gemma Price, and William Kelly Clark-Sykes.

She is predeceased by her parents Warren E. and Florence Smith.

Ellie was born in Stoneham, Mass., on Nov. 28, 1942. She lived in Westwood, Mass. and attended local schools, graduating from Westwood High School in 1961.

After high school, Ellie attend the Boston Conservatory at Berklee to study ballet. She graduated from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, in 1964, with a Bachelor of Arts in English. In 1965, she married Thomas E. Flanagan, and moved to Durham, N.C., to teach 8th grade while Tom attended grad school. In 1968, Ellie and Tom moved to Calgary, Alberta, Canada, where she taught kindergarten.

Ellie returned to the States in 1972 and continued to teach in the Rochester, N.H. school system. She married Lewis B. Sykes in 1978. In 1995, she graduated from Andover Newton Theological School with her Master of Divinity and taught Religious Education in the Unitarian Universalist tradition. Ellie was ordained in 2004 to the ministry of Religious Education by the Unitarian Universalist Church of Concord, N.H.

Ellie and Marcel married at the Concord Church on Jan. 1, 2005. Together, they served interim ministries in Ottawa, Ontario; Bloomfield Hills, Mich., and Kennebunk. After retirement, they moved to Belgrade Lakes, and eventually settled in Winslow in 2017.

In retirement, Ellie was devoted to causes of social justice with emphasis on women’s rights. She was an avid knitter, quilter, and seamstress. She had a deep commitment to friendship. Perhaps because she was a UU religious educator, but more probably just because she was Ellie, she listened intently and always had the comfort of advice that was needed, and the humorous quip to lighten the mood.

Throughout her life, Ellie maintained a love affair with Star Island, one of the nine Isles of Shoals located seven miles off the coast of New Hampshire and Maine. She worked her first season as a Pelican—as the employees are known—in 1961 and returned to the island for many years to work and volunteer. Star Island was her “happy place,” and she was pleased to visit it one last time in June.

Ellie had a smile that could light up a room and was one of the most joy-filled people anyone had the privilege to know. She will be fondly remembered for her kindness, compassion, wit, and wisdom by all who knew her.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Wounded Warrior Project or the Star Island Corporation in her name.

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