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FAIRHAVEN -- Gladys T. (Wagstaff) Dupont age 85 years of New Bedford died Friday, Jan. 24, 1997 after an extended illness. She was the widow of Carl Dupont and daughter of the late Samuel S. and Agnes L. (Townson) Wagstaff.
She died at Our Lady's Haven in Fairhaven.
Born in Fall River, she lived in this area all of her life and was a member of St. Andrew's Episcopal Church. She was formerly employed as a clerk-bookkeeper in real estate locally with Tower Construction Company and Leisure Shores Realty.
Mrs. Dupont was educated in local schools and was a graduate of New Bedford High School.
Survivors include a brother, Samuel S. Wagstaff Jr. of New Bedford; and a niece and nephew.
She was the mother of the late Arnold Chace.
Arrangements are by the Wilson Chapel, 479 County St., New Bedford.
SOMERSET -- Emily F. (Hamer) Cabral, age 76 of William Street, Fall River, died Friday, Jan. 24, 1997. She was the wife of Manuel Cabral and the former wife of Leo P. Briand. She was the daughter of the late Lester and Florence (Anyon) Hamer.
She died at Clifton Rehabilitative Nursing Care Center in Somerset.
She was a lifelong resident of Fall River, and a communicant of Saint Louis Church where she was a member of its Womens Guild. She was also a member and vice president of the Arruda Club of Fall River.
Mrs. Cabral was employed for more than three years as a trimmer for the former Samesta Manufacturing Company in Fall River, retiring in 1962.
Survivors include four sons, Leo Briand, Ernest Briand and Steven Briand, all of Somerset and Frederick Briand of N. Edwards, Calif.; a daughter, Frances Desmaris of Fall River; two brothers, Frank Hamer of Westport and George Hamer of Coventry, R.I.; a sister, Florence Hamer of Fall River; nine grandchildren; eight great-grandchildren; several nieces and nephews; and several great-nieces and great-nephews.
Arrangements are by the O'Rourke Funeral Home, 571 Second St., Fall River.
NEW BEDFORD -- Myrtle L. (Harding) Dow, 63, of New Bedford, died at home Thursday, Jan. 23, 1997, after a long illness. She was the daughter of the late Clarence and Agnes (Courville) Harding.
She was born in Ware and lived in New Bedford for the past 15 years. She was employed as an assembler at Aerovox Group, New Bedford, until her retirement in 1996.
Survivors include a son, Steven A. Lacasse of Alexandria, N.H.; a brother, Robert Harding of Waycross, Ga.; a sister, Loretta A. Lacasse of Franklin, N.H.; two grandchildren; and several nieces and nephews.
Arrangements are by the Kirby Funeral Home, 61 Tarkiln Hill Road.
WAREHAM -- Hulda Ellen (Heino) Pesonen of South Carver, died Saturday, Jan. 25, 1997 at Forestview Nursing Home in Wareham. She was the widow of William Pesonen.
She was born January 4, 1904 in Naantile, Finland, the daughter of the late Albin and Elizabeth Heino.
She lived in Carver since 1934. She worked as a cook most of her life and was the first cook for the Tobey Hospital in Wareham and was the cook for 13 summers at Camp Norse a Boy Scout camp in Plymouth.
Mrs. Pesonen was a member of the South Carver Methodist Church for most of her life and a member of the South Carver Grange. She was a member of W.S.C.S. (Womens Society of Christian Service) of the Methodist Church.
Survivors include two daughters, Anna Pesonen of South Carver and Sylvia Hunter of Merrimack, N.H.; three grandchildren; two great-grandchildren; and several nephews.
Arrangements are by the Shepherd Funeral Home, 116 Main St. (Rte.58), Carver Ctr., Carver.
NEW BEDFORD -- Izaura "Hazel (Sylvia) Avila, 79, died at home Saturday, Jan. 25, 1997. She was the widow of Joseph M. Avila Sr., who died in 1957, and the daughter of the late Manuel G. and Rosa (Cotta) Sylvia.
She was a lifelong resident of New Bedford and a communicant of Out Lady of the Immaculate Conception Church.
Mrs. Avila was a homemaker and enjoyed doing crossword puzzles.
Survivors include four daughters, Delores Simmons, Nancy DeAraujo and Rose Marie Avila, all of New Bedford and Theresa Lagasse of Acushnet; four sons, Anthony Avila, Joseph M. Avila Jr., and Raymond M. Avila Sr. of Fall River and Robert Avila of Rhode Island; two sisters, Rose Dutilly of New Bedford and Mary Mendes of Lenmore, Calif.; four brothers, Antonio Sylvia of New Hampshire, Joseph Sylvia and Victor Sylvia Sr., both of New Bedford and Manuel Sylvia of Dartmouth; 24 grandchildren; 23 great-grandchildren and nieces and nephews.
Arrangements are by the Donaghy Funeral Home, 465 County St.
WAREHAM -- Peter J. "Teta" Gomes, Jr., 88, died Saturday, Jan. 25, 1997, after a long illness. He was the widower of Christine (Andrade) Gomes and son of the late Peter J. Sr., and Margaret (Fernandes) Gomes.
He died at the Tobey Hospital Transitional Care Unit.
He was born in Cape Verde Islands, and came to this country in 1919. He was employed as a cranberry grower for Sharon Bogs for 26 years. He was also employed by Ocean Spray. For many years, Mr. Gomes sold corn and strawberries at "Teta's Corn Stand" in Wareham for many years.
Mr. Gomes was a communicant of St. Patrick Church in Wareham and St. Anne Shrine in Fall River.
Survivors include 12 sons, Roger of Newton, Manuel, Carl, Philip, Ronald, Antone and Benjamin, all of Wareham, Peter J., III of Boston, Eugene of Falmouth, Wayne of Hampton, Va., Donald of Onset and Allan of Jacksonville, Fla.; a daughter, Christine Stephens of Wareham; a sister, Stella Sylvester of Wareham; 35 grandchildren; 26 great-grandchildren; and two great-great-grandchildren.
Mr. Gomes was the father of the late David Johnson and the brother of the late Catherine Andrews and Frances Centeio.
Arrangements are by Stott, Chapman, Cole and Gleason Funeral Home.
FAIRHAVEN -- Agnes C. (Curry) Coogan, 92, of Wood Street, Somerset, died Friday, Jan. 24, 1997. She was the widow of Daniel J. Coogan and daughter of the late George and Maryann (O'Hara) Curry.
She died at Nichols House Nursing Home in Fairhaven.
She was born in Fall River and resided in the East End of Fall River. She had been a resident of Somerset since 1932 and was a communicant of St. Thomas More Church.
Survivors include a daughter, Patricia Shay of Somerset; a sister, Mary Abbott of Myrtle Beach, S.C.; two granddaughters; four great-grandchildren; two great-great-grandchildren; and several nieces and nephews.
Arrangements are by the Rose E. Sullivan Funeral Home, 866 County St., (Rte. 138) Somerset.
Ida Kohlmeyer, an abstract painter known for colorful pictographic canvases, died on Friday at the Touro Infirmary in New Orleans. She was 84 and lived in Metairie, La., a suburb of New Orleans.
Mrs. Kohlmeyer, who spent most of her life in New Orleans, took up painting when she was in her 30s, and managed to achieve wide recognition for her work, which was exhibited in galleries and museums around the country.
A daughter of Polish immigrants, Ida Rutenberg earned a bachelor's degree in English literature at Sophie Newcomb College of Tulane University in New Orleans. Her interest in art began during her honeymoon in Mexico, when she was drawn to the ceramic folk art of Central and South America.
In 1950 she returned to Newcomb, this time to its art school, and earned a master's degree in painting. In 1956 she studied at the summer painting school of the New York painter Hans Hofmann, known for his use of color, who persuaded her to give up representational art for abstraction. For more than a decade she worked primarily in a gestural style influenced by Hofmann and other Abstract Expressionists, including Arshile Gorky and Mark Rothko, whom she met in New York.
By the mid-1970s, inspired by the work of Miro as well as her interest in South American art, she developed a distinctive vocabulary of hieroglyphs, shapes and signs, all organized in a loose grid, that hovered among abstraction, writing and emblem. That style, which she explored for the rest of her life and eventually translated into sculpture, gave expression to her draftsmanship and encouraged her sense of color.
Mrs. Kohlmeyer had her first exhibition at the New Orleans Museum of Art in 1957. Her first exhibition in New York City was at the Ruth White Gallery in 1959.
The High Museum of Art in Atlanta held a retrospective of her work in 1972, and a retrospective that was organized by the Mint Museum of Art in Charlotte, N.C., traveled to seven cities in 1984 and 1985. Her most recent New York show was at the Mary Ryan Gallery in 1995.
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