Lois Marie Nilson, of Mansfield, died peacefully on Tuesday, May 6, 2025.
Lois was born in Boston on January 7, 1933, daughter of Alfred and Esther Gleason, younger sister to Myrl. Lois was raised in Randolph and Milton, graduating from Milton High School in 1950. She met the love of her life, Frank Nilson, at the First Congregational Church in Milton. Lois was younger than Frank by nine years, but she proudly kept her “courtship” diaries, all written in secretarial shorthand, with the steamy details now undecipherable to her family.
Lois was a dedicated homemaker and mother of four. She devoted herself to her family and to First Christian Church, in West Mansfield. Lois taught Sunday School for over 20 years, especially proud of her term as “School Superintendent." She committed countless hymns and Bible verses to memory, as she took her Christian faith serious. Lois loved hosting friends and family. No one was a stranger after five minutes and the Sunday dinner table always made room for one more. Frequent guests included her parents and in-laws, great aunts and uncles, any of her dozen nieces and nephews, her kids’ college and out-of-state friends, West Mansfield folk who had moved away and came home to visit, and anyone who did not have a place to go for a holiday dinner. Later, she welcomed sleepovers with her grandkids (and their friends). Lois’s home was an intergenerational mix, and guests better be ready to talk, as Lois was famous for her gift for gab.
Lois and Frank loved to travel. In early years, they tent-camped throughout New England, and twice they traveled for 7 weeks during summer vacations with their four children and their own parents, visiting National Parks and historic landmarks, from Massachusetts to California. Later in life, they joined group trips to Caribbean islands and extended family adventures to Europe. Lois's correspondence was legendary, her notes and postcards penned in exquisite calligraphy, an over-abundance of "quotation marks” to draw attention to “special” words. She was a good and true friend to many – her longtime neighbors on Bungay Road, her kids’ in-laws, her childhood companions from elementary school – she extended openhearted warmth to all. She even kept up a 20-year correspondence with strangers she met just once, at a pub in the Scottish Highlands. Everybody mattered to Lois and she remembered everyone, especially on birthdays and holidays.
Lois is survived by her son Bruce (Donna) Nilson of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; Barry Nilson of Grantham, New Hampshire; Bryan Nilson and his partner Anne, of Mansfield; Martha (Jonathan) Pierce, of Mansfield; by 11 grandchildren, 14 great-grands, and her many nieces and nephews who she adored. Lois was delighted to “go home to the Lord” and see her beloved Frank, her sister Myrl and brother-in-law Bob, sister and brother-in-law Edie and Pete Conti.
Relatives and friends are invited to greet the family during visiting hours on Monday, May 12, 2025, from 4-7 PM at the Sherman Jackson Funeral Home in Mansfield.
A Funeral Service will be held at First Congregational Church in Milton Massachusetts at 10 AM on Tuesday, May 13, 2025, with burial to follow at Milton Cemetery.
In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Daggett Crandall Newcomb Home, 55 Newland Street, Norton MA 02712.