Thelma (Teddy) Grenier, who died at the McClure-Miller Respite House in Colchester on April 19, 2020, was born in Ellenburg, NY on May 6, 1925, the fifteenth in a family of sixteen children of Charles and Ruth Cole.   She was a 1943 graduate of Ellenburg High School where she was thought of as "tomboy" because of her athletic skills.  She was her father's right-hand man on the farm and worked at Alcoa Aluminum in Messina, NY during the war years.  She met John Grenier through family relatives. They married when he was discharged from the Marines in 1945 and were lifelong working partners until his death in 2011. In 1947 they bought a dairy farm on Kneeland Flats in Waterbury with (nephew and sister-in-law) Leonard and Rosamae Baker. They raised three children, Charles, David and Marilyn on the farm.  Over the years they operated three other dairy farms in Waterbury which they sold in 1966 to operate a propane gas business full time. Teddy was the accountant for the Grenier Gas business and was involved in community activities, Farm Bureau, VFW Auxiliary, Rotary, the Waterbury Women's Club and attending all of her children's school and sports activities. They retired in 1987 and spent summers rehabilitating a small farm near her sister, Naomi and Jimmy Keough, in upstate NY creating a Christmas tree farm.  These trees supplied the Methodist Church in Waterbury for several years with their Christmas tree sales to support the Food Shelf.  Winters were spent in Port Charlotte, FL  enjoying traveling with friends, fishing in Florida and in Alaska with family friends, Libby and Norman Eastman.  Teddy was a great Red Sox Fan and an avid hunter, bringing home a white tail deer  from the age of 39 to the last one at 88 years old. The last eight years she lived with her daughter Marilyn and Faye Dow in Vermont and in Florida.  This was interspersed with shorter stays with sons Charles and Harriet Grenier and David and Nora Grenier.  Living with family brightened her days and also gave her opportunity to get to know her very young great grandchildren; KC and Lydia, Eli and Rosalie, and Matilda and Lucia.  She loved to tease and make them laugh. Teddy was loved and respected for her warm, open welcome to everyone and her great sense of humor.  She has one remaining sister, Marjorie Rowe, in Plattsburg, NY.  She was "Favorite Aunt" to many Cole and Grenier nieces and nephews.  She is dearly missed by her loving family,  Charles and Harriet Grenier, John and Nicole Grenier, Elijah and Rosalie, Adam and Ana Celia Grenier, Matilda and Lucia. David and Nora Grenier, Steven and Sarah Schimoler, Kirsten and Karl Sutaria. Marilyn and Faye Dow, Hannah Tomeny and Rob Richardson, Kenneth Cole and Lydia, Stephanie and Mark Lanphear, Riley and Peyton, and Bridget and Connor Dow. Memorial contributions may be made to the Waterbury Food Shelf, 57 South Main Street, Waterbury, VT 05676 or the Waterbury Area Senior Center, 14 Stowe Street, Waterbury, VT 05676.  Condolences may be mailed to P.O. Box 361, Waterbury, VT 05676. Arrangements are in the care of the Perkins-Parker Funeral Home and Cremation Service in Waterbury. To send online condolences please visit www.perkinsparker.com  or the funeral home Facebook page.

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