Elaine N. Sigan

Elaine was born March 19, 1927, in Escanaba, the daughter of HJ & Ruth Norton. Elaine was raised in Gladstone where she graduated from Gladstone High School. After graduation, Elaine attended St. Scholastica College in Duluth, Minn. before moving to San Francisco, where she took a job with TWA as a Flight Attendant. She loved San Francisco and the Lockheed Constellation, “The Connie,” the first pressurized passenger liner, and to her, the greatest aircraft ever built. Later in life, Elaine was united in marriage to Howard Sigan, a WWII Navigator onboard the USS Yorktown, and later the USS Enterprise. After the war, they married and made their life between homes in Gladstone and Grand Marais, Mich., raising their four children. Elaine was widowed at an early age and spent her last decades traveling all over the world. She had a remarkable memory and a full quiver of rich stories she enthusiastically shared with those around her. She was a fun and remarkable individual.

Her father had a Ford dealership, and when Elaine was 15, she and her sister each drove a new semi-truck for delivery to a customer in Milwaukee. After teaching Elaine how to drive a semi around the block of their home in Gladstone, her sister Mary, announced to her father that Elaine was ready for Milwaukee. Each sister was allowed to take a friend along for the ride. Elaine’s family was not amazed that Elaine drove a Big Rig to Milwaukee, but by the fact that someone’s parents allowed their little girl to go along for the ride. Her high school summers were spent in Milwaukee, where she and a girlfriend would stay in boarding ­houses while working fun jobs in the big city. She always said that times were really exciting during the war, and with all the guys gone overseas, girls could work anywhere, and she did. She loved the city, and was by far, the best Jitterbug dancer around.

One of Elaine’s favorite things to do was to take all the girls in the family to see Broadway plays in different cities. These trips were deeply seasoned with great food and wine. Once while in Boston, she accidentally crashed a Harvard fraternity party. Given the fact that she was the oldest person to ever try and break into one of their famous parties, she and her group of granddaughters were allowed to stay as honored guests. Every Thanksgiving she would take her entire family on a weeklong ski vacation. There were family cruises, Disneyworld trips, and various other excursions filled with fun and warm good times. Elaine’s home was always open to anyone and her yard a playground for children. Her holiday gatherings were well known and well attended. She was a genuinely nice person and never had a bad thing to say about anyone. She will be missed by many and had a great full life.

Elaine was preceded in death by her husband Howard, her son Donald, her Granddaughter Audra, and special friend Phil Cosgrove. She was also preceded in death by her sister Mary Burroughs and her brother Ralph “Bud” Norton. Elaine is survived by three children, Nick A. Sigan (Gayle Soderman), Dan H. Sigan, and Mary Ruth Sigan (Conrad Kragness); nine grandchildren, Rachell Sigan, Damia Toyras, Amy Calouette, Kelly Kragness, Nick Sigan IV, Conrad Kragness II (Chandra), Stephanie Arduin, Roseanna Cole, and Jake Calouette; and many great-grandchildren.

A Celebration of Life will be held on Friday, July 8 at 1 p.m. at the Gladstone Yacht Club.