Name: Jerry LaFreniere dies and is remembered on Beaver Island, 2008
Start: 2008-08-07
End: 2008-08-11
Location: Holy Cross Catholic Church building

Event

Dates: 2008-08-07 – 2008-08-11
Kind: Death
Where: Holy Cross Catholic Church building
Eras: Modern era
Concepts: deathcommunitymilitaryreligioncommunication
Within: Beaver Island

Summary

Gerald “Jerry” Nelson LaFreniere died at his Beaver Island home on August 7, 2008. The memorial identifies his long employment with the Beaver Island Boat Company, Vietnam-era Army service, family, Holy Cross Catholic Church, and an August 11 Mass and visitation.

Evidence limits

This record follows the newspaper memorial and service notice; it does not replace a civil death record or independently verify every biographical detail.

Sources

Beaver Island Forum, "Gerald Nelson LaFreniere RIP-Eulogy," August 4–26, 2008.
The extensive family and community thread documents the August 7 death, return to Beaver Island, August 11 service, and eulogy/community memories. It is valuable contemporaneous testimony, but claims about funeral size, attendance, and personal recollection are not treated as audited facts; the Beaver Beacon remains the stronger memorial source.
forum · www.beaverislandforum.com · 01 · t001225
Beaver Beacon, September 2008, "In Memory: Jerry LaFreniere 1940–2008."
Reports Jerry LaFreniere’s August 7 death at his Beaver Island home, his more than thirty years with the Beaver Island Boat Company, military service, family, August 11 Holy Cross Mass, and the August 29 benefit. No public copy of this file is known; the archive holds one and can provide it on request.
data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 2008-09_Beaver-Beacon
Beaver Beacon, September 2008, held issue PDF, source scan.
The held issue scan confirms the memorial notice.
data1 · beaver-island-archive · scans · beaver_beacon · issues · 2008-09_Beaver-Beacon

Added 5 August 2026. Recent changes

Cite this article

Beaver Island Archive, “Jerry LaFreniere dies and is remembered on Beaver Island, 2008”, https://beaverislandarchive.org/events/beaver-island-jerry-lafreniere-memorial-2008/, accessed [date], citing Beaver Island Forum, "Gerald Nelson LaFreniere RIP-Eulogy," August 4–26, 2008. (and 2 further sources listed on the page).

Last revised 2026-08-05. Fill in [date] with the date you read it — this page is static and cannot know that.

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