North Kingstown, RI – Carol Sylvia (Gagner) Dolan passed away August 15, 2026 at age 92 in North Kingstown, RI. Sylvia lived in Quechee for twenty years, from 1995 to 2015.
Sylvia was born December 10, 1933 in Providence, RI to Noel and Margaret Mary (Mulligan). She grew up in Central Falls, RI. Her summers at the family cottage on Martha’s Vineyard were the highlight of her childhood and the Vineyard is where she met her husband, William Henry Dolan, who predeceased her in 1996. Bill and Sylvia were married in 1956. They had five children.
Bill and Sylvia raised their family in Manhasset, NY and spent summer vacations on the Vineyard.
Education was very important to her. She spent two years at the Rhode Island College of Education. After raising her children Sylvia received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and Master of Science degree from the C. W. Post College of Long Island University. She was a Library Media Specialist for the lived Elmont, NY public school system from 1989 until she and Bill retired to Quechee, Vermont in 1995.
Bill and Sylvia moved to Quechee to be close to Sylvia’s sister, the late Margaret Mary (Gagner) Dandeneau, Margaret Mary’s husband Roger, deceased, and their family.
Sylvia was an accomplished painter of watercolors that depicted scenes of New England, including Quechee. She exhibited and sold many paintings in Manhasset and Quechee.
Sylvia enjoyed golf, especially at the Quechee Club courses. She also played tennis, volunteered at the Quechee Library, and was a member of the Quechee Garden Club.
She spent her later years at the Waterman Lake independent living facility in Greenfield, RI.
She is survived by her sister, Judith Smith, of Catonsville, MD, brother Raymond of Hawaii, her five children, Cynthia Dolan, West Warwick, RI, Liz Durkee, Oak Bluffs, Christina Dolan, Enosburg Falls, Vermont, Bill and his wife Jody, Oswego, Oregon, Andrew, Norwich, Vermont; four grandchildren, Caitlin Lozano and Matthew Chipperfield, Liam and Norah Dolan, and two great grandchildren, Owen and Maddie Lozano.
A service will be held at a later date on Martha’s Vineyard, where she will be buried next to her husband. A funeral Mass will be held at 11 am on Saturday, October 3 at Our Lady Star of the Sea Church in Oak Bluffs, Mass.
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