Christie Dennis Obituary

Christie Poindexter Dennis

Hanover, NH — Christie Poindexter Dennis of Hanover, NH and Cambridge, MA passed away after a short illness on June 11th, 2022 surrounded by people who loved her. Christie was born in New York City in 1931 to George and Elinor Poindexter and spent her early childhood in Easton, Connecticut with her siblings Joseph, Leslie and Peter. Christie attended the Putney School in Vermont, and Radcliffe College, graduating in 1953. She later obtained a Masters in Social Work (MSW) from Simmons College.

She loved her family beyond measure, taking her role as mother as her primary job, when her sons John and Nick were young, and again ten years later, after the birth of her youngest son, Simon. It was the role she most cherished. When they were grown, she saw herself as an agent of connection between her family's various step, half and full siblings. It was because of her family that she became a social worker, and because of her children, she worked in the peace movement.

She had two very interesting marriages and learned a lot from each of her husbands. She felt very fortunate in the children each brought to the marriage and held onto them dearly as crucial parts of the whole family -- both before and after the deaths of their fathers. Christie cherished the friendships she made at every stage of life and her network of friends old and new was a great source of joy and support, particularly in her later years.

She loved to cook and to eat, especially, in her later years, sweet potato pasta with garlic, parsley and olive oil, and insisted that cakes could be sweetened with banana peels. She loved to read and to walk in the woods in Maine. She worked hard against the proliferation of nuclear weapons, even going so far as a trespassing gig at Cape Kennedy, Florida, for which she went to jail briefly.

A golden event, the high-point of her college years, was singing with the Radcliffe Choral Society and the BSO, Bach's St John Passion. It planted a seed and because she wanted at least her last child to know the origins of the two main Christian holidays, she searched out a church and found Harvard-Epworth. At the age of 41, she surprised herself and others, by attending a service regularly for the first time in her life and, as it turned out, for the rest of her life. This was a blessing that never ceased.

Christie was predeceased by her two husbands, Louis Lafleur and Rodney Dennis; her sister, Leslie Poindexter and her step daughter, Sarah Dennis. She is survived by three sons, John Lafleur (Irina Muresanu), Nick Lafleur (Yoko Minai) and Simon Dennis; three step children, Chris Lafleur (Keiko Miyazawa) , Ingrid Lafleur Yurchenco (Peter) and Sam Dennis (Diane Shannon); one brother, Joseph Poindexter, (Holly) three grandchildren, Kentaro Lafleur, Koko Lafleur and Victor Lafleur; and five step grandchildren, Alexandra Dennis, Nicholas Yurchenco, Helen Yurchenco, Emma Lafleur and Sarah Lafleur, and her nieces and nephews, Maria Levitsky, Melania Levitsky, Ashiel Ojeda, Owen Poindexter and Matthew Poindexter.

A memorial service will be held on September 10th at 2:00 p.m. to celebrate her life at the Harvard Epworth Methodist Church in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In lieu of flowers, Christie has requested that donations be sent to Massachusetts Peace Action, 11 Garden Street, Cambridge MA 02138 (https://masspeaceaction.org/) and the Georges River Land Trust, 8 N. Main St., Rockland, ME 04841. (https://www.georgesriver.org/)