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Laurel A. Knight
Laurel A. Knight, of Stuart, Florida, formerly of Ipswich, passed
peacefully February 4, 2022, in Orchid Cove Nursing Home in Port Salerno,
Florida at age 77.
Laurel (Gibbons) was born in Melrose, on December 5, 1944, the daughter of
the late K. Agnes and Allen Graham Gibbons. Laurel graduated from Melrose
High School and went on to attend Salem State College. In her youth,
Laurel was a ballet dancer and was chosen to join the New York City
Ballet. Following college Laurel worked for thirty years for the “Ma Bell”
phone companies: New England Telephone, AT&T and Verizon, until her
retirement with a CWA Union pension. During these years she earned many
sales awards, notably a two-week all-expense paid trip to Italy for her
and her late husband, Herbert L. Knight.
In 1991, she married Herb, a proud WWII Veteran and North Shore
contractor. The couple resided at Bayview Road, Ipswich until 2002 when
they moved to Stuart, residing at Miles Grant Country Club Cove. Following
her retirement from the “Ma Bell” phone companies, Laurel and Herb had
many years of good life sailing New England waters from Ipswich to Cape
Cod. Laurel began a second career in real estate in Ipswich and continued
to be an outstanding real estate agent for Real Estate of Florida, where
she sold more homes in Country Club Cove and Miles Grant than all other
agents. Herb and Laurel enjoyed life there at Miles Grant until Herb’s
passing in 2006. Throughout her life, Laurel cared for many people,
friends in Ipswich, husband Herb in his illness, and her companion, Miles
Grant Golf Champion, James Passantino.
Laurel is survived by her daughter, Michelle Ferland and her husband,
Richard of Smithfield, NC; granddaughter Felicity Ferland of Clayton, NC;
two sisters, Ruth Epple and her husband, William, of Mount Bethel, PA, and
Charlotte Penney of Methuen, and a brother, Robert A. Gibbons, and his
wife, Brenda, of Stuart, FL. She was predeceased in October 2020 by
granddaughter, Chante Ferland.
Laurel’s funeral service will be held graveside 11 am Thursday, April 14
in the Cowles Memorial Cemetery, Town Farm Rd. Ipswich. Family and friends
are respectfully welcomed. Arrangements are under the direction of the
Whittier-Porter Funeral Home of Ipswich.
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