GARDINER – Beulah “Bea” (Shields) McLaughlin, 86, was called home by her Lord and savior on Dec. 31, 2022. She told everyone she was ready to join her husband Charles “Junior” McLaughlin in heaven. She was surrounded by her children and their spouses in her final hours.

Bea was a hard worker, spending her early years working in shoe shops. Later she and her husband Junior owned and operated McLaughlin’s Store and Salvage yard, after selling the business she worked several years for Laverdiere’s and Hannaford. Bea was a very generous giving person, always putting others’ wants and needs above her own. She loved making quilts and made quilts that have special meaning for all her children, their spouses and grandchildren.

She was active in many social clubs, loved playing Rummikub, cards with her senior groups, knitting with “the girls” and going to Tacoma Quilters.

Bea will be missed by her three children, Stephen McLaughlin and wife Carol, Trena Rideout and husband David and Charles McLaughlin III and partner Lucy Bond; she was a proud grandmother to David Rideout, Jr. and wife Angie, Joshua Rideout and wife Ronna, and Amy McLaughlin; and great grandmother to Rylie Mahoney, McKenzie Mahoney, and Alannah Rideout. She is also survived by her sister Beverly Dill, and two brothers Weldon and Donald Shields; many in-laws, nieces, nephews and friends.

At Bea’s request there will be no services.

Arrangements are entrusted with Staples Funeral Home and Cremation Care, 53 Brunswick Avenue, Gardiner, Maine. Condolences, memories, and photos may be shared with the family on the obituary page of the Staples Funeral Home website, http://www.staplesfuneralhome.com



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