Agnes Rose Bigford (nee Behnke), 93, of North Kingstown, R.I., died peacefully Sunday, April 6, 2008, at Scalabrini Villa. Services and burial will be at Memory Gardens in Arlington Heights, III. The daughter of the late Reinhold and Julia (nee Heinz) Behnke, she was born June 7, 1914, in Lena, Wis. She grew up there on the family farm, where she much preferred riding horses and working outdoors to any kind of housework. As a young woman, she moved to Chicago, where she met and married James Bigford. She worked for the Western Electric Company during World War II, and then the couple moved to Arlington Heights, where she worked as a lens inspector for The Addressograph Multigraph Company. Widowed in 1963, she was a wonderful and tireless single Mom. She retired in 1979 to Bradenton, Fla., where she spent 17 warm, fun years before moving to Rhode Island in 1996. She lived in Winslow Gardens (The United Methodist Retirement Center) in East Providence and Brightview Commons in South Kingstown before moving to Scalabrini Villa. No matter where she lived, she was always a "cheesehead" who rooted for her Green Bay Packers and remembered her German Wisconsin roots. She loved animals, gardening and traveling and was a good bowler, a terrific dancer (especially when it came to the polka) and a devoted grandmother. She was the wife of the late James Kenneth Bigford and the beloved mother of Pamela Bigford Thomas of North Kingstown. Besides her daughter, she is survived by her loving son-in-law, Christopher Thomas and beloved grandchildren, Ryan Bigford Thomas and Caitlin Rose Thomas, all of North Kingstown; her brothers, Herbert Behnke (Lenore) of Shawano, Wis., and Ira Behnke (Evelyn) of Lena, Wis.; and many nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by an infant daughter, Sandra; sisters, Pearl Behnke and Minnie Marquardt; and her brothers, Reinhold Jr., Alfred, Art, Gustav and Gordon. Arrangements were made by Hill Funeral Home, East Greenwich, R.I. Published in Chicago Suburban Daily Herald on Apr. 10, 2008