Staff Writer

Kennebunkport municipal offices close today at 10:30 a.m. so workers may attend the funeral of Anita Troegner, the town treasurer who is remembered fondly by co-workers and friends.

Troegner, 67, died Saturday at Gosnell Memorial Hospice House in Scarborough after a brief illness. She was surrounded by her family.

“Her heart was bigger than her chest,” Kennebunkport Police Chief Joe Bruni said. “She really cared a lot about people. It’s taken all of us back. It’s a sad day.”

Bruni said he knew Troegner for more than 25 years, before she began working for the town six years ago and her previous job at Ocean National Bank in Kennebunk.

“My mother passed away in 2004 and that’s the about the same time Anita came to work at the town office. I kind of pulled for her to work over here. At that point we became very close and she kind of stepped into the spot of grandmother for my kids, especially the little one,” co-worker Rose Wills said. “They were very, very close. She was very close to my family and my husband as well. She was just a good person. She had a good heart. She will definitely be missed by my family.”

Wills said it was hard to go back into the office Monday without Troegner and many staff members were feeling Troegner’s absence.

“When folks came in they got a lot when they worked with her. She was just a great woman and a good friend. She was a confidant, one that you could go to with your troubles and concerns. She was someone you could vent to and you knew it stayed there with her. She was always available to give private encouraging words for folks she worked with. She’d give you the shirt right off her back,” said co-worker Werner Gilliam.

Troegner and her former husband, Joseph W. Troegner, where married in Berwick and moved to New Jersey, where they operated Joe’s Texaco Gas Station for several years. They moved back to Maine and started Joe Troegner’s Service Station on Route 111 Biddeford. As the business grew, the duo built Joe Troegner Auto Service on Route 1 in Biddeford, where she worked as a secretary.

Throughout the years she worked many other part-time jobs.

She also was a member of the Portside Rotary of Kennebunkport and a member of St. Martha Church of Kennebunk, where she was a Eucharistic minister and Sunday school teacher. She also volunteered with United Way and Jaycees.

She enjoyed shopping, crocheting, gardening and family gatherings.

She was predeceased by her parents.

She is survived by two sons, Joseph L. Troegner and his fiancée, Tina, of Waterboro and John W. Troegner and his wife, Theresa, of Biddeford; daughter, Anita M. Belanger, and her husband, Jimmie, of Biddeford; brother, Joseph “Sonny” Mayo, of Berwick; five sisters, Rita Arnold of Dover, N.H., Jeannette Dumais of Zephyrhills, Fla., Lucille Brooks of Berwick, Rose Lajoie of Berwick and Theresa Sansoncie of Rochester, N.H.; her former husband and his wife, Rachel, of Lyman; five grandchildren and many nieces and nephews.

A funeral Mass is 11 a.m. today at the Holy Spirit Parish at St. Martha on Portland Road, Kennebunk. Private interment will be in St Joseph Cemetery in Biddeford at a later date.

In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to Gosnell Memorial Hospice House in care of Hospice of Southern Maine, Development Department, 180 U.S. Route 1, Scarborough, ME 04070.

Funeral arrangements made by Bibber Funeral Home, Kennebunk.

Staff Writer Suzanne Hodgson can be reached at 282-4337, ext. 233.