Ann (Devney) Paterson, 94, Dennison Manufacturing Registered Nurse

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MARLBOROUGH – Ann (Devney) Paterson, 94, of the Meadows / New Horizons retirement community in Marlborough, Massachusetts, died peacefully on February 10, 2022.

Born November 19, 1927, Ann was the daughter of Martin Francis Devney and Minnie Rose (Walshe) Devney of Boston and was raised in the city’s Jamaica Plain neighborhood.

She graduated from Girls’ Latin School, and then Radcliffe College in Cambridge (class of 1949), and became a registered nurse after training at the Massachusetts General Hospital. She moved to Marlborough in 1963.

Ann worked for many years at Dennison Manufacturing Company in Framingham as a company nurse, retiring in the mid-1980s.

She was the loving wife of Ian C. Paterson, an engineering manager from Canada whom she met at Dennison and married in 1975. They tended their garden and traveled the world joyfully together until his death in 1995 on a cruise off the coast of Denmark.

Ann joined her retirement community in 2003, and soon grew to love it and the many friends she made there. A tiny woman with a soft voice, wry humor, keen intellect, and kind heart, she spent the rest of her life reading widely and voraciously (from C.S. Lewis and David McCullough to Nevil Shute, Hilary Mantel, and Dennis Lehane); drinking strong coffee and white wine; watching movies and TV shows (preferably vintage English films, those featuring Judi Dench above all); gaming with a school of fellow bridge sharks; cherishing a parade of horribly spoiled cats; missing Ian and a sadly increasing company of dear departed; and delighting her friends and family with her quiet curiosity, gentle wit, and fascinating stories and observations.

Our lovely Aunt Ann was predeceased by her parents; her brothers Paul, Robert, and Frank; and her sister-in-law Shirley (Campion) Devney, plus two other sisters-in-law she treasured as best friends: Joanne (McGlaflin) Devney and Joan “Joanne” (Holmstrom) Devney.

She leaves her sister-in-law Blanche (Takaki) Devney of Foxboro, plus a bereft bunch of nieces and nephews: Robert Devney Jr. of North Attleboro; Elizabeth Devney; Michael Devney of Cambridge; Darcy Devney and her husband Robert Kuhn of Arlington; Laura (Devney) Nadeau and her husband Michael of Algonquin, Illinois; Steven Devney and his wife Donna of Hendersonville, Nevada; Andrew Devney of Andover; Mark Devney and his wife Tracey of Castle Rock, Colorado; and Peter Devney of Haverhill.

Also missing Ann already are the next generations: Nicole Nadeau of Wheaton, Illinois; David Nadeau, his wife Maggie, and their sons Westley and Milo of Glendale, Arizona; and Cassandra (Devney) Oliver and her husband Nick of West Suffield, Connecticut.

Those attending any memorial for Ann must be fully vaccinated and wear a properly fitted mask.

Services will be held at St. Matthias Church, 409 Hemenway Street, Marlborough, at 1 pm on Wednesday, February 16.  

Arrangements by Short & Rowe Funeral Home, 95 West Main St, Marlborough.

Ann will be buried with her husband Ian at Evergreen Cemetery in Marlborough on a later date.