SANFORD — Edith (Drake) Beaurivage, age 94, died at Merrimack County Nursing Home Jan. 13 after a long and good life.

The daughter of Edla Sarah (Beane) Drake and Charles Afton Drake was born at home in Suncook, New Hampshire.

As an infant, she was not expected to live. Yet live she did, graduating from Pembroke Academy in 1939 and The Memorial School of Nursing in Concord, New Hampshire in 1943.

She immediately enlisted in the Army Air Corp training and became a World War II flight nurse in the Asian-Pacific, reaching the rank of 1st Lieutenant.

Edith was proud of her service to her country. She shared good times and bad with soldiers at air bases and military hospitals and loved nursing. She loved to dance and fly and was loyal to the many friends she made during this period of her life. Always the letter writer, she shared her adventures and travels with family and filled scrapbooks so that she would “never forget.”

After the war, Edith continued to travel, doing hospital and private duty nursing in California and Maine before returning to her beloved home state.

She could have earned her pilot license but nursing was her calling. She often assisted family and friends with her skills and helpful ways.

Edith met Gerard Beaurivage, another great dancer, in the late 1950’s. They married and lived in Sanford for 47 years.

Edith raised two daughters, and was an active advocate for the disabled. She was responsible for getting many a social worker and program to see beyond the paperwork and forms ”“ to make compassion the priority. She was tireless in seeing that the least among us received the standard of care we all deserve long before it was politically correct. Her bravery, courage and love guided her through life. Amelia Earhart and Rose Kennedy were her idols.

Edith and Gerard moved to Concord, New Hampshire in 2006 to live with her daughter and son-in-law, where her joie de vivre and generosity enjoyed a new audience. She shared her stories and opinions with the Concord Monitor readers.

She made new friends and admirers at Merrimack County Nursing Home where she lived her final years, timing-out of hospice twice before her business here was complete. Free of her body, Edith now soars with the eagles, but lives on in the good deeds of others.

She is preceded in death by: her siblings and family, Wesley Drake, Esther Sprague, Iva Piroso and her husband Gerard and daughter Mary.

She is survived by: her daughter, Rosanne Beaurivage and husband David Belser of Penacook; nephews, Ron Piroso, David Drake and Robert Beaurivage; and nieces, Diane Cote, Cheryl Sprague, Kathy Nichols, Elaine Beaurivage, and Joanne Ranberg.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Merrimack County Nursing Home Edna McKenna Fund, The Smile Train or Women In Military Service For America Memorial Foundation. A memorial celebration in will be held in her daughter’s home in spring, followed by a burial at St. Ignatius Cemetery in Sanford.