Irene A Fitzgerald's Obituary
Irene A. Fitzgerald, a beloved mother, grandmother, and accomplished realtor, passed away peacefully on October 28, 2024, in Estero, Florida. She was 93.
Born on September 26, 1931, to Vitalise Charlebois and Aldea Labelle in Glens Falls, New York, Irene was the middle child of five girls. When she was young, her parents, French Canadian immigrants from Ontario, purchased a dairy farm in Hudson Falls, where Irene worked with her four sisters, Rita, Rose Theresa, and Yvonne.
Down the road was Fitzgerald Dairy Farm, where Irene met a young Irish man with red hair named Edmund Fitzgerald. They married on March 31, 1951 at Saint Mary’s Church, and moved into a small, charming craftsman home built by Edmund’s mother. There they had two daughters, Linda and Kathleen; a third, Anna Maria, died in infancy.
Irene worked at the Glens Falls insurance company, then in real estate with Bartholomew Realty, Reardon and LaPann, and Key Realty. In 1971 she became a licensed broker and opened her own office, Fitzgerald Realty of Glens Falls, at 581 Glen Street, which she ran for 35 years. She was a city assessor, a member of the Glens Falls Board of Realtors, the Women’s Civic Club, and Saint Mary’s Church.
Irene loved her agents and clients. She was ambitious, always with her own personal touch. But her deepest attachments were with her family. In the ’70s, Irene bought her first Winnebago, so that her parents could travel comfortably to visit friends and relatives in Canada. She used it herself to travel with friends to Florida, where she eventually bought a home in Estero, for the winter months.
Soon thereafter her four sisters and a few Canadian cousins also bought homes in Florida. Irene enjoyed gardening, cooking and hosting dinner parties, and she was very happy to have her sisters just a golf cart ride away. The Charlebois girls loved to sing French songs, play cards and square dance. Irene enjoyed country western music, going to the theatre, and was a shark at BINGO. The day before she died, she was surrounded by her daughters, her sister Rose, and two nieces singing her beloved French songs to her.
Irene is predeceased by her husband, Edmund, and sisters and brothers-in-law Rita and Louis Brier; Theresa and Francis Shaw; and Raymond LaPlaca. She is survived by her sisters and brothers-in-law Rose LaPlaca and Yvonne and Bill Stewart; her daughters Linda Fitzgerald Connelly and Kathleen Fitzgerald, her son in-law Allen Yasser; her grandchildren Christian, Heather, and Julia; her great-grandson, Bennett; and her nieces and nephews Daniel LaPlaca, Patricia O’Keefe, Donna Sullivan, Christine Burrows, Michael Shaw, Colleen Gilmore, James Shaw, David Davis, Richard Brier, David Brier, Laurie Carmellini, Susan Broadwell, Karen MacDonald, and Bryan Stewart.
A Celebration of Irene’s Life, is planned at the Queensbury Hotel in Glens Falls New York on August 13, 2025. On that day she will also be laid to rest with her daughter, husband, parents, in-laws and sister at the Fitzgerald/Charlebois family plot at Saint Mary’s Cemetery in South Glens Falls.
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