Anita Louise Ewbank

Anita Louise (Renaud) Ewbank, formerly of Raeford Avenue, died Saturday, August 19, 2023 at Brookstone Retirement Center, where she had been a resident since February of 2022, with Hospice of Davidson County overseeing her care. A memorial service will be held at 3:00 PM Saturday, August 26, 2023 at Grace Episcopal Church, in Lexington NC, where she was a member. The Rev. Edward T. Kelaher will be officiating, and the family will receive friends at the church after the service. Anita was born at home in Haverhill, Massachusetts on June 23, 1939 to Arthur Renaud and Alice Delia (Hoyt) Renaud. Her father was in the service and they lived in Medford, Massachusetts, during most of her childhood with a couple of years overseas in Scotland and in Germany. After her dad’s oversea tours, the family returned to the states, and Anita graduated from Medford High School with perfect attendance through all 12 of her school years. She then studied Physical Therapy at Northeastern University in Boston and at Gordon College in Wenham, Massachusetts, where she met her future husband, Ralph Leon Ewbank, who was studying theology at the Seminary. They were married June 24, 1960, and during their 57 years of marriage, they live in many different places: MA, NH, OH, IN, IL, MB, OR, NH, SD, NC. Anita was a wonderful wife to her husband, and a loving and caring daughter, sister, mother, grandmother, great grandmother, aunt, and friend. She never knew a stranger. She loved God and her neighbors. She was kind and outgoing and loved to make people laugh. She loved helping people and served as a Community Caregiver for many years in Derry, NH. Anita served the Lord and His church as a Sunday school teacher, children’s choir director, and Pioneer Girls leader. She also learned sign language so she could sign for deaf worshippers during church services. She taught herself how to play the accordion and loved playing for her family, the children in her Sunday school class, and residents at local nursing homes. Anita learned to knit while living in Scotland and, years later, while living in Manitoba, she learned how to knit the most amazing slippers. After that, she was always knitting slippers for her family members and friends. She was knitting slippers every day up until the last few years of her life when Alzheimer’s dementia caused her to forget how to make them. In 1980 Anita became a nurses aide and she worked the night shift in nursing homes in Oregon, New Hampshire, and South Dakota until she and her husband, Ralph, retired in 2015, and moved to North Carolina with their daughter, Renee. Anita was preceded in death by her father Arthur Renaud (1972), her daughter Rebecca Lynne Ewbank (1980), her mother Alice Renaud (2010), her brother Alvin Renaud (2011), and her husband Ralph Leon Ewbank (2017). Surviving are her brothers Alfred Renaud (Carol) and Allan Renaud (Carolyn), her sister Audrey Renaud Dohse, her children Alice Snyder (Richard), Ray Morton-Ewbank (Connie), Renee Ewbank (Buddy and Little Bit), her grandchildren Matthew Cole (Amanda), Maleah Pinyan (Joshua), Michael Williams-Cole (Caitlin), her great-grandchildren Layla Cole, Sawyer Cole, James Pinyan, Joanna Pinyan, and many nieces and nephews. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to the Alzheimers Disease and Related Disorders Association, 3800 Shamrock Drive, Charlotte, NC 28215