VAN BUREN – The St. John Valley on Tuesday was mourning a woman who was passionate about her French heritage and religion, and a woman whose strong devotion and support of the University of Maine at Fort Kent saved it from oblivion 36 years ago.

Marcella Violette, 84, a native of Van Buren and the first woman in the St. John Valley to acquire a doctorate degree, died Monday, Oct. 17, after a brief illness. She was the wife of Elmer Violette, a former state representative, senator and a justice on the Maine Superior and Supreme Judicial courts.

She was the kind of woman who spoke fiercely about her French heritage, the use of the French language and the benefits of higher education, enamoring her among her people, according to friends and family members.

She was a mother, not only to her own family of five children, but to all residents of the St. John Valley who met her and felt her passion for education, her faith, the French language and the downtrodden, friends said.

She also was an author.

In defense of the French language, she spoke at a meeting of the Maine Acadian Commission some years ago.

“This is culture,” she said to people urging them to speak their native tongue. “Save it. Appreciate it. Show them, prove to them that it still lives here.”

“She was one of a kind, and one who left such a mark on this [St. John Valley] area,” former state Sen. Judy Paradis said Tuesday afternoon. “Her voice is irreplaceable.

“A humble woman, she gave and she gave and she gave,” she said. “She was such a leader and she didn’t realize it.”

She supported the French language, Catholicism and education, especially for women, every chance she had, Paradis said.

In 1969 Violette roused a crowd of 1,500 UMFK supporters when she addressed a Higher Education Policy Task Force organized by Gov. Ken Curtis to delve into the future of the institution. While she spoke in both French and English, most of her dissertation was in French, a language University of Maine System Chancellor Don McNeil did not understand.

She made him understand the importance of the UMFK campus by the fiery applause she received from the audience who could understand her.

“She had a great impact on her community,” Jason Parent, director of University Relations at UMFK, said Tuesday. “In a very passionate speech she saved the campus in 1969.

“She wowed them, and in French,” he said. “She received thunderous applause, the most of everyone who spoke that night.”

Over the years, UMFK bestowed several honors on Violette.

She received UMFK’s Distinguished Service Award, and an honorary degree from the campus. One year she was the school’s commencement speaker.

Parent grew up in Van Buren, and remembers the support she gave him in his professional life.

“She was a legend,” he said. “People looked up to her and her husband.

“She was extremely proud of local people, and complimentary of people who spoke French.

“She told me, more than once, to wear my heritage on my sleeve wherever I went,” he remembered.

She taught school in her younger years at Strong, Stearns High School in Millinocket and later, religion to scores of Van Buren youngsters for 25 years.

She was proud of her affiliation with UMFK, and the family supported her in that endeavor by starting the Marcella B. and Elmer H. Violette Scholarship Fund there several years ago.