Winifred Estelle Aiguier Cates

Franklin; Winifred Aiguier Cates, 91 died Sunday, February 25, 2018, at Bristol Glen in Newton after a long illness.

Morn May 6, 1926 in Kearny, New Jersey, she was the daughter of the late Winifield and Margaret Schrapper Aiguier.

As a student she began working after school in the offices of the Dupont Corporation in Kearny, New Jersey, as part of a business training program offered at Kearny High School during the war effort. After graduating in 1944 she continued at Dupont full-time where she met Neil C. Cates Jr., who became her husband of 52 years until his death in September of 2001.

After leaving Dupont in 1949 and moving to Randolph, the focus of Mrs. Cates' life was her husband and family and friendships. She and her husband moved from Randolph to Franklin in 1952. Known as "Winnie" by those close to her, when she as nor cheerfully attending to the unending tasks that homemaking and motherhood demands, or taking messages and doing other clerical tasks to assist her spouse, she was intent ion keeping up with the changing world around her. Until she became ill in her later years, she was an insatiable reader, and her knowledge of current events was complemented by a vast store of what some may all trivia, but was what she viewed as fascinating bits and pieces that construct the culture in which she lived. She retained an alert interest in the people and activities surrounding her until the last days of her life. Although petite in stature, she was a woman of considerable strength and patience and love; though serious in demeanor, she possessed an unabashedly optimistic sense of fun and humor. She had a knack for making any person she interacted with a smile even when they didn't want to.

Mrs. Cates is survived by her daughter Carol and son-in-law Donald G. Parker of Westtown, New York; two sons, Neil C. Cates III of Wayne, New Jersey and Glenn W. Cates of Franklin, New Jersey; a sister Janet and brother-in-law Rondell R. Clement of Sherwood, Arkansas; and many nieces and nephews and their children.