D. Annette Ambrose, 86

LACONIA — D. Annette (McLellan) Ambrose, 86, of Sanborn Street, died on Thursday, June 8, at her home after a long period of declining health.

Annette was born on April 6, 1937, in Conway, to the late Charles McLellan Sr. and Dorothy (Yeaton) Garland.

Annette graduated from Kennett High School in Conway in 1955, where she had many happy memories of playing on the basketball team with her best friend, Rosalie. Always the athlete, Annette spent every summer of her childhood at her parents' camp on Ossipee Lake, where she would often swim from one side of the lake to the other and back again, just for the “fun of it.” Annette loved playing tennis and taking tennis lessons with Kay Hubbell. Annette and her children had box seats at the Volvo Tennis Tournament in North Conway, each year, thanks to her dad being the plant manager at the former Pepsi Plant in North Conway.

A single mother raising two children on her own, Annette worked as a telephone operator in Conway in the ‘50s through the mid-‘70s, when her job was transferred to Laconia. Instead of uprooting her children, Annette commuted to and from Laconia every day until her children graduated from high school in Conway. Once settled in Laconia, Annette was a “regular,” skiing at Gunstock Mountain in the winter with her friends. After retiring from AT&T in 1991, Annette loved attending monthly lunches at Hector’s with her “telephone girls.” In her retirement she was also able to grow close with her neighbors on Sanborn Street; many of whom Annette helped as they grew older, and many who helped Annette as she grew older, especially the Harper family, their children and even their grandchildren, also known as “Annette’s Little Angels,” who kept Annette smiling with hand-drawn cards, pictures and newspaper deliveries every day for years.

Annette is survived by her brother, Wayne McLellan and his wife Raelene, of Conway; sister, Vivian Kimball, of North Conway; son, James Ambrose and his wife Andrea, of North Port, Florida; daughter, Julie and her husband David; grandchildren, Heather, Jeffrey, Holly and Nicole; five great-grandchildren and many nieces and nephews. She is predeceased by her brother Charles “Butch” McLellan Jr.

Special thanks to Carrie Pearson who acted as Annette’s substitute daughter when Julie lived in the south and to Jeanne Breton who always kept Annette’s “tech” in working order when Julie was living elsewhere.

Burial at Village Cemetery in Conway will be private.

In lieu of flowers, cards of condolences can be sent to the family home on Sanborn Street.

Wilkinson-Beane-Simoneau-Paquette Funeral Home & Cremation Services/ 603Cremations.com, 164 Pleasant St., Laconia, is assisting the family with arrangements. For more information and to view an online memorial, visit wilkinsonbeane.com.