Sylvia Lee Fougeron

Sylvia Lee Fougeron was born to Alice Lillian (Halling) and Harold Edgar Eidsvold in the small town of Morris, Minnesota on June 19, 1936. She enjoyed an idyllic, free-range childhood along with her sisters and brother. She enjoyed swimming and skating on the lakes. Sylvia’s love of animals developed early. She had dogs, horses, cats, chickens, rabbits and turtles. She was a member of a competitive horseback square dancing team (done at a full gallop) in high school. Her older sister Nancy was not happy to share a room with all of Mom’s saddles and bridles! Like Scout Finch, Sylvia and her friends liked to go down to the county courthouse after school and listen to the trials. During the summers, she also helped to work in the wholesale candy business that her father and grandfather started. Sylvia’s brother Tom was always teasing her about being the naughty, mischievous child. She would reply that she was just making life easier for her younger siblings. One of her life-long loves was reading. She was frequently found at the local library and wanted to study library science in college.

After graduating from Morris High School, Sylvia attended the University of North Dakota. She told the story about how her father always said he thought he was putting six kids through college. She said that he actually was because she was so generous with her college friends! She had an intuitive business knowledge from listening to her father and grandfather at the dinner table. Although she originally planned to study Library Science, she ended up studying Sociology. She had many life-long friends among her sorority sisters.

Sylvia married her childhood sweetheart John William Fougeron. They had two daughters Chantel and Jamie. The family lived in Grand Forks and Minneapolis before moving to Richardson and Dallas in 1965. Sylvia poured her heart into raising her daughters. She spent countless hours taking them to ballet lessons, horseback riding lessons, and soccer games. She sewed unique and beautiful school clothing for her daughters. She served as room mother and planned all the school parties when her daughters were in elementary school. She helped with school projects- she put up with fruit fly genetic experiments and even cat dissections on her dining room table! She was always available to wipe away a tear or give her daughters valuable advice.

Sylvia and John moved to North Carolina after retirement. They had a beach house on Holden Beach and spent many fun summers with her sister Mary and brother-in-law Joe enjoying the ocean. Sylvia and John had a permanent home in Connestee and enjoyed taking their boat out on Lake Atagahi. She joined a needlework group where she met many friends. John and Sylvia later moved to College Walk where they were residents for many years.

Sylvia will be remembered for her love of reading. Often, she would read all night after a busy day of sewing, cooking and dealing with the demands of two daughters. She passed this love of reading on to her two daughters and Jamie became a librarian. Her granddaughters also love to read. Sylvia particularly liked mystery novels and books about animals. She was also remembered for her love of gardening. She grew beautiful garden flowers. She passed this love of gardening on to her daughter Chantel who studied plant science and genetics in college and her grandson is an agronomist. She loved to knit and made exquisite sweaters and afghans that are family treasures. She passed this love of knitting and needlework onto her daughter and two of her granddaughters. All her grandchildren share her love of animals and have pets of their own. One of her granddaughters also shares her equestrian passion and has a horse. Sylvia took great pride in her 100% Norwegian heritage and enjoyed baking intricate Norwegian cookies at Christmas time. Sylvia was a big fan of Texas A&M Aggie sports.

She is preceded in death by her parents Alice and Harold Eidsvold, her loving husband John Fougeron, and her sister Nancy Plecas.

She is survived by her daughters Chantel (Doug) Scheuring and Jamie (Brian) Murphy, her grandchildren Leslie (Tommy) Schubert, John (Amanda Bohon) Scheuring, Katherine Murphy, and Kelly Murphy, great-grandson Locke Schubert, sister Mary Bilotta, and brother Tom Eidsvold and several nieces and a nephew.

The family would like to thank her health care providers especially Beth, Linda, Amber, Sam and Anna and all the staff and fellow patients at Davita Dialysis for their excellent care and encouragement.