ATHOL -- Jeanette Noel, 89, formerly of Athol, Royalston, Hubbardston, Gardner, and New York City, N.Y. died on Jan. 13, at the Cabrini Medical Center Hospital, New York City. She was born in Lewiston, Maine, and came to Massachusetts when she was very young. Ms. Noel lived and worked for much of her adult life in the Catholic Worker movement in service to the poor of Central Massachusetts and Manhattan’s Lower East Side in New York. She cared for troubled youths and impoverished adults for many years at “The House of Ammon,” a Catholic Worker farm in Hubbardston and at “Maryhouse,” a hospitality house for homeless women located in New York City. Ms. Noel joined Father Bernard E. Gilgun and others in their first communal experiment, “True View Farm,” in Royalston in the 1960s. Later, she continued to work in a similar venture in Hubbardston in the 1970s. She served the indigent young who came to her. She put up sizable harvests of tomatoes, mixed vegetables and fruits annually to get the community through some severe Hubbardston winters. Following a fire at the farm that ended the experiment after seven years of intense labor, Ms. Noel moved to Gardner and stayed with friends before moving to Maryhouse in New York City. Ms. Noel returned to this area periodically to speak of her faith at work in New York’s Maryhouse. In between her many life journeys, she resided locally with long time friends, Ed and Norma Maciorowski of Gardner. She was sacristan at Our Lady Immaculate Church in Athol, and Eucharitistic Minister at Nativity Church in Manhattan, N.Y. She became known and celebrated for her “hugs,” a symbol of her wide heart. Her great sense of humor and yet humble piety made her a rare jewel. Ms. Noel counted among her associates and friends, delinquent youths, street people, Catholic Workers, Benedictine nuns and Cistercian monks, including several Trappist abbots and writers. A Catholic Worker House serving refugees was named in her honor in Amsterdam in the Netherlands, by young people there who were inspired by her upon meeting her in New York City. She subsequently traveled to Holland, when the “Jeanette Noel Huis” was dedicated. She leaves a nephew, Raoul Noel of Dracut; and a niece, Arline Cirincione of Rockwell, Md. She was predeceased by her former two husbands, Anthony Robichaud and Peter Noel, along with four sisters and four brothers. NOEL -- On Jan. 13, Jeanette Noel, 89, of Athol. A memorial mass was celebrated at Nativity Church, Manhattan, on Jan. 25. A Mass of Resurrection will be celebrated by the Rev. Bernard Gilgun at Our Lady Immaculate Church, 192 School St., Athol, on April 22, at 10 a.m. Burial will follow in Gethsemane Cemetery. Donations in her memory may be sent to The Catholic Worker, 36 East First St., New York City, NY 10003; or to St. Scholastica Priory, 271 North Main St., Petersham, MA 01366. J. Edward Murphy Funeral Home, 137 Main St., Athol, is directing arrangements.