Lawrence native honored with Methuen Village Lifetime Achievement Award | Merrimack Valley

METHUEN — Adele LaFrenier has held a lot of titles in her life: teacher, singer, dancer, wife and mother, to name a few.

She was recognized for all of that and more recently when she received the Methuen Village Lifetime Achievement Award at a ceremony there surrounded by more than two dozen family members and friends.

Anne Lafortune, EnrichedLIFE director for the Methuen Village senior living facility, said LaFrenier was honored for her decades spent sharing her talents and passions with her family and the community.

LaFrenier was born and raised in Lawrence in a large, loving Italian family with seven brothers and sisters. She graduated from Lawrence High School, attended the Mackintosh Business School and worked at the mental health department in Boston.

She developed a love for music and dance as a child, competing in dance contests through her adulthood. In her 20s, she sang in a quartet called the “Hart Sisters.”

That love of music and dance led her to her husband, Roger, whom she met at a dance at the VFW in Lawrence shortly after World War II. They married in Lawrence on May 7, 1949, and moved into their first apartment in Tower Hill. As he finished his education, LaFrenier supported the couple financially.

Together they had four daughters: Carlene, Adrienne, Audrey and Elisa. They raised them in Andover in a home he built and lived there for years before moving to Methuen Village.

LaFrenier was an accomplished seamstress and made matching outfits for her girls along with coats and dresses for special occasions. She shared those skills at the Andover Department of Community Services in the 1970s. Along with being active in the community, she was also one of the original members of St. Robert Bellarmine Church. She worked at Western Electric until she retired, and has since doted on her growing family, which includes nine grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.

“Adele showed passion in everything she has accomplished in her life,” Lafortune said at LaFrenier's ceremony.

Lafortune also noted how LaFrenier's Italian heritage was a large part of her life. An “incredibly talented Italian cook,” she passed her recipes on to her family through a cookbook she authored.

“Her passion for her Italian heritage is awesome. Her travels to Italy of course strengthened that passion,” Lafortune said.

LaFrenier's daughter, Audrey also spoke at the ceremony and celebrated alongside her mother.

The award says that LaFrenier's lifelong passion “is an inspiration to all who know you.”

Follow Lisa Kashinsky on Twitter @lisakash23.