YARMOUTH — Ellen Paul Skelding Bernard, 87, died March 5 in Yarmouth.

She was born in Boston, the daughter of Paul Skelding and Elizabeth Drake Skelding. She grew up in Hingham and Norwell, Mass. She attended the Putney School in Vermont and later graduated from the Mary Fletcher Hospital School of Nursing in Burlington.

She married Anthony Marsingall Bernard in Boston on April 4, 1955. They lived for many years in Erieville, N.Y., where she had a small hobby farm, and Anthony worked as a research biologist at Bristol Myers in Syracuse. After her husband’s retirement, they moved to Searsmont, before finally settling in Damariscotta, where Anthony died in 2012.

She was a keen gardener who loved birds and cared deeply about environmental issues. She died peacefully, surrounded by her family, at the home of her daughter.

She was predeceased by her parents; and her sister, Mary Skelding Davis.

She is survived by her four children, Elizabeth Burtt, of Yarmouth, Jennifer Sutliff, Peter Bernard, of Augusta and Christopher Bernard; and eight grandchildren.

She donated her body to the New England College of Osteopathic Medicine in Biddeford, as her husband had before her. A memorial service for both of them will be held at Maine Audubon in Falmouth on Saturday, April 12, at 5:30 p.m.

Donations in their memory may be made to Maine Audubon, 20 Gilsland Farm Road, Falmouth, ME 04105; or to VNA Home Health Hospice, 50 Foden Rd, South Portland, ME 04106, who took such good care of her in her last days.

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