Linda Elworthy of Cohasset; worked as a nun and teacher; at 69

Her work with seniors over the past decade was another chapter in a lifetime of serving others, including 27 years as a nun and work as a teacher and a nurse.

"She really spent her whole life in service of others. She was an amazing person," said her niece Beth Magner, of Holden.

Ms. Elworthy died in her sleep on Sunday at her Scituate home, where she lived with two tiger cats. Her family did not know the cause of her death but said she had battled breast cancer in the past. She was 69.

Ms. Elworthy had begun her third year as director of Cohasset Elder Affairs, where she was advocating for a new senior center and had opened a Cohasset Café at the Lightkeeper's House on Mondays to get seniors to gather.

"She was a human dynamo," said Anna Abbruzzese, a longtime member of the Cohasset Elder Affairs Board. "She just had more energy than all of us put together. She was a wonderful person, very passionate about her seniors, very dear."

She once warned the town's Board of Selectmen, "I come in like a steamroller," Abbruzzese said. "She was a fighter."

Ms. Elworthy brought a wealth of contacts and knowledge about senior citizens' issues, according to board members.

"She had a million ideas because she brought so much experience to the job," said elder affairs board chairman Joseph Nedrow. "It's a big loss for us."

Before working in Cohasset, she was director of the Salem Council on Aging from 1999 to 2006. She left the position after a longtime incumbent mayor lost his reelection bid.

"Every senior was family to her," said Jackie Grimes, who is principal accounts clerk for the council in Salem. "The only word I keep using for her is 'compassionate.' "

When Grimes's daughter became gravely ill and later died, Ms. Elworthy helped Grimes cope. "She [the daughter] was in a coma for five years. For those five years, Linda was so good to me," she said.

Born in Waltham, Ms. Elworthy was raised in Medfield by her mother, Josephine. Her parents divorced when she was a child.

She entered the convent as a young woman and became a Sister of Notre Dame DeMur in Ipswich. She was a nun for nearly three decades and taught at the St. Bartholomew School in Needham in the 1970s.

She had a great sense of humor, friends said, and enjoyed telling stories from her teaching career. She once got a call from a local pharmacist who told her a female student was seeking birth control. The student wanted to know whether she could buy some "abstinence."

Ms. Elworthy earned a degree from Newton-Wellesley Hospital School of Nursing in 1973. She worked at the hospital and at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston during her nursing career, her family said.

She left the sisterhood and began working with the elderly. Her only sibling, Richard, died in 1999, months after the death of their mother, whom Ms. Elworthy cared for in her last year.

Ms. Elworthy liked religious music as well as the songs of Josh Groban. She often sent e-mail messages to her friends and relatives with Christian themes.

"Even though she left the convent, she was very much a spiritual being," her niece said.

Ms. Elworthy leaves several other nieces and nephews.

A funeral service will be held at 9:30 a.m. today at St. Anne Church in Salem. Burial will be in Greenlawn Cemetery.