Claire Donegan, 40-year resident

Claire Faulkner Donegan, a longtime Ridgefielder who had worked at The Silk Purse, died Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2005, in Danbury. She was 83 years old.

Mrs. Donegan was born in Boston, Mass., in 1921, daughter of Hubert and Mary Faulkner. She graduated from Dorchester High School for Girls in Dorchester, Mass., and worked for the Army Ordnance Department in Boston during World War II.

While there, she met her future husband, Frank Donegan, a U.S. Army captain returning from the European theater. They were married in 1946 and had moved to Ridgefield in 1965.

Mr. Donegan, who owned the Bell, Book and Candle Shop in the Donnelly Shopping Center in the 1960s and 70s, died in 2003. Mrs. Donegan occasionally helped out at the shop, which was the town’s only bookstore for many years.

Although a homemaker for much of her life, Mrs. Donegan worked for several years at the Silk Purse on Main Street and for the law firm of Ventura & West in Danbury. She volunteered at the Dorothy Day Soup Kitchen in Danbury and was a member of St. Mary’s Parish.

“Mrs. Donegan had a lifelong love of reading and was a strict grammarian,” her family said. “She loved art and antiques, and passed her enthusiasms on to her children. She was also a spirited singer.”

She is survived by two sons, Robert of New York City and Frank of Schenectady, N.Y.; two daughters, Priscilla of Royal Oak, Mich., and Nancy of Poway, Calif.; daughter-in-law Jackie; sons-in-law Ryan Mathews and John Sedej; and eight grandchildren: Evan, Fields, Adam, Zack, Sierra, Gabriel, Sorelle and Owen.

The Rev. Paul Murphy celebrated a Mass of Christian Burial Monday, Aug. 8, in St. Mary’s Church.

Burial was private.

Contributions in her memory may be made to the Ridgefield Visiting Nurse Association, 90 East Ridge, Ridgefield 06877.

The Kane Funeral Home was in charge of arrangements.