An Androscoggin County Probate Court judge in 1925 followed doctors' assessments that Turcotte, then 11, was "a fit subject for Pownal State School."
Richard Turcotte's mother, Phillipine Lacroix Turcotte, died when he was about three. His father, Eugene Turcotte, died earlier in 1925.
Parentless, with no immediate relatives nearby, Turcotte lived with neighbors for a while, then, in December 1925, was sent to live at Pownal State School.
