BANGOR – Louise Williams Gordon, born in Monticello, Ga., in 1914 and a resident of Bangor since 1963, died gracefully in her sleep Sept. 22, 2009, at age 95. Her husband of 30 years, a highly regarded musician and music teacher, Frank H. Gordon, of Lincoln, died in 1975. She is survived by three of her four children, Angela Bilodeau of Orlando, Fla., Seth Gordon of Miami and Walker Gordon of Bangor. Her eldest son, Ross Gordon died in 1974. She is also survived by brother-in-law, Mathew Manzari of Tampa, Fla.; daughter-in-law, Laura Bradley of Miami and Los Angeles; son-in-law, Gerard Bilodeau of Orlando, Fla.; and grandson, Seth Bilodeau of Orlando, Fla., with whom she shared a magical bond. Louise was part of a wonderfully creative and eclectic family. Her parents, sisters, aunts, uncles and in-laws were writers and artists. She graduated from Barrington School in Massachusetts in 1933. She achieved national recognition in the 1950s and 1960s by naming and devising promotional slogans for an array of national consumer products. She loved politics. And she was a pragmatic realist with no patience for self-important posers or evangelists. But her greatest achievement was raising and protecting her eldest and youngest boys, Ross and Walker, as they faced their respective mental challenges. From the mid-1950s when Walker was diagnosed as autistic, a generally unknown malady at that time, through the suicide in 1974 of son, Ross, after many years of struggle with schizophrenia, Louise devoted her life to her sons. She was their tireless spokesperson and caregiver and unyielding champion. Arrangements by Memorial Alternatives, 205 Center St., Bangor.
LOUISE WILLIAMS GORDON
