Obituary notices, week of September 14 through September 20, 2026
This week's notices carry three obituaries for Townsend, Massachusetts residents, current or former, drawn from postings by Anderson Family Funeral Homes and Richardson Funeral Home.
Lyle W. Pierce Jr., 72, of Townsend, MA, died August 28, 2026, at UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester, MA. He was born September 12, 1953, in Charlemont, MA, to Eleanor (Burdick) and Lyle Willis Pierce, Sr., and is survived by his daughter, Julie (Pierce) Hopkins. Services will be announced; details were not included in the notice available at publication. Full obituary at Legacy.com (Richardson Funeral Home, Leominster): https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/name/lyle-pierce-obituary?id=62419524.
Mary Louise Bataitis, 46, of Fitchburg, formerly of Townsend, died unexpectedly Thursday, September 10, 2026. She was born in Fitchburg on June 17, 1980, the daughter of John F. "Skip" Bataitis and the late Louise (Tibbetts) Bataitis, and grew up in Townsend. Services will be announced; details were not included in the notice available at publication. Full obituary at Legacy.com (Anderson Funeral Home, Townsend): https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/name/mary-bataitis-obituary?id=62431576.
Zachary Scott Zufelt, 59, of Townsend, MA, died September 14, 2026. He was born March 26, 1967, to Bonnie Vitelli. He built a multi-generational plumbing and heating company, Royal Flush, and was an inventor of the Zip Seat Extractor and other plumbing tools. Services will be announced; details were not included in the notice available at publication. Full obituary at Legacy.com (Anderson Funeral Home, Townsend): https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/name/zachary-zufelt-obituary?id=62440674.
Notices compiled from Anderson Funeral Home, Townsend; Richardson Funeral Home, Leominster; Legacy.com; Echovita; and Tribute Archive. Townsend Patch's obituaries page carried no listings for the period at the time of this review.
Compiled from funeral home notices and published obituaries.