March 28, 2024

Eleanor Borden Wattie 

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We are very sad to announce the passing of Eleanor Borden Wattie, passed away at the age of 99 on December 3. Known in Rehoboth as Eleanor Borden, she was a loving mother to three children and their spouses, adoring grandmother, and proud great-grandmother. She loved her family and told everyone about them whenever and wherever she could.

Eleanor was born and lived in Fall River until 1951, when she and her husband Gardner Borden moved to Rehoboth, where they raised three children – Christine (Jennings), Priscilla (Sibley), and Jonathan Borden.  She lived in Rehoboth until Gardner’s death in 1980.  Many in Rehoboth may remember her as very active in the Rehoboth Congregational Church as a junior and senior choir director, soloist.  She could often be found preparing church and Lion Club suppers in the kitchen of Goff Hall, and was active in the Rehoboth Garden Club, the Second Thursday Activity Club, and Pack 1 of the Cub Scouts as a Den Mother.   During the 1970’s, together with Gardner, she joined other Rehoboth residents as founding members of the volunteer Rehoboth Counseling Center, where they took great satisfaction in helping families in crisis.  Most of all, just the ever active Mrs. Borden, helping out wherever her kids were.

After the death of her husband Gardner in 1980, Eleanor remarried to Robert Wattie and lived her last 25 years in a retirement community in West Melbourne, Florida, where she was President of the residents' association, was active in raising scholarship money and serving in a local soup kitchen, sang in the Eastminster Presbyterian Church choir, planned weekly Vesper services, planned memorial services for residents, and was always baking something for someone.

Eleanor will be sorely missed - by her family and her many friends, and by so many whose lives she touched in Rehoboth and in Florida. Her strong faith in God sustained her to her very last hours.

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