Traveled extensively during her life
Published April 8, 2020
BEVERLY — Elena Maria Gillon, 100, the daughter of the late Emiliano Sulsona and Maria Cristina Castillo Sulsona, died suddenly at the age of 100 on March 30, 2020 while visiting her daughter in Bluffton, S.C.
She was born on Oct. 22, 1919 in Culiacan, Mexico. Elena was pre-deceased in 1971 by her husband of 32 years, Bernard James Gillon of Lynn. She was preceded in death by a sister and her brothers Louis, Miguel, Raphael and Eduardo.
Her parents met as part of a theater troupe in Puerto Rico, raising Elena and her four brothers while touring Mexico, Central and South America in the early 1900s. During this time, she traveled extensively with the family while her father performed as a magician and escape artist. She returned to Spain in the early 1930s and fled in 1936 at the onset of the Spanish Civil War.
The family settled in Tela, Honduras, where she met her husband who worked for the United Fruit Company. They returned to Lynn in 1939, where she started her family and began a journey living throughout the U.S., spending 10 years in California before returning to Lynnfield where she lived from 1954-1959. She continued her journey for 10 more years from 1959 to 1969, residing in Norfolk, Va., Baytown, Texas, Portland, Conn. and Turners Falls, where she lived from 1968-2015. At that time, she moved to Colonial Gardens Residence in Beverly to be closer to her family.
Elena is survived by her five children: Bernard James Gillon Jr. of Northboro; Judy Corson of Salem; David Gillon and his wife Jayne of Glastonbury, Conn.; Robert Gillon and his wife Linda of Lynnfield; and Linda Cichanowicz and her husband Paul of Bluffton, S.C. She was greatly loved by her nine grandchildren and 17 great-grandchildren. In addition, Elena leaves her sister-in-law Shirley Newsom Sulsona of Denison, Texas as well as several nieces and nephews in California, Texas, Arizona and Wisconsin and cousins in Seville and Alcala Spain.
Interment will be in Lynn and a Celebration of Life will be private for the family.