NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Lois Jean Benvenuti died peacefully on Jan. 26, 2021, surrounded by her family at home. 

She was born to "Jack" Giacomo Annibale Benvenuti and Nellie Maria Crosina, on Aug. 22, 1926, in North Adams. 

She is survived by her sons, Nicholas Adams of Berlin, N.Y., and Fredrick Adams of Rutland, Vt. Her sister, Roberta Joan Benvenuti, and husband Murry Daitchman of Syracuse, N.Y. She was predeceased by both her first and second husbands, her brother, John Robert Benvenuti, and numerous cousins, among them the Prengubers, Mazzuchi's, Cellana's and Trenti's.

She leaves two grandsons and one great-granddaughter. Arron Adams, who was her primary caretaker for the past three years in Rutland, and Jason Adams, who lives with his spouse and daughter in Zurich, Switzerland.

As a youngster, she attended Haskins Grammar School and was a member of the 1943 Drury Class. She went on to study at the Massachusetts School of Art in Boston before joining the war effort in Presque Isle Maine as an airplane mechanic. It was there she met and married her first husband, John N. Adams. After the war, they lived for a while in Los Angeles, Clif. where her eldest son, Nicholas, was born. Her younger son, Fredrick, was born in North Adams.

While in North Adams she first worked at Sprague Electric before deciding to continue her education at North Adams State Teachers College. Shortly after graduating she and her family moved to Millbrook, N.Y. In Millbrook, she started working for Dutchess County and helped established the Special Education Program at the Thorne Memorial Building before being moved to the BOCES complex in Salt Point.

Her vocation was traveling, visiting relations in Trentino, Italy, and working on her home in North Adams.

The family is planning a memorial for her after this pandemic is over and relations can trave again.

Funeral arrangements were handled by Clifford Funeral Home in Rutland, Vt.