By RUSS OLIVO

WOONSOCKET — In a devastating personal blow to Mayor Susan D. Menard and her family, the mayor’s 31-year-old daughter was found deceased at her residence in Massachusetts yesterday.

By RUSS OLIVO

WOONSOCKET — In a devastating personal blow to Mayor Susan D. Menard and her family, the mayor’s 31-year-old daughter was found deceased at her residence in Massachusetts yesterday.
Carrie Pilavin had two small boys, Jacob, 4, and Nathan, 2. The family, including her husband, James Pilavin, lived in Newton, outside of Boston.
Pilavin’s passing was both sudden and unexpected. Sources close to the family said Pilavin’s death appears to have been the result of an accidental complication stemming from a medical treatment, but the Office of the Massachusetts Medical Examiner is conducting an autopsy.
News of Pilavin’s death reached City Hall just after 8:30 a.m. yesterday and quickly filtered through the building, leaving co-workers stunned with grief.
“The mayor shared a special relationship with her only daughter and we recognize Carrie’s passing has totally crushed the mayor,” said Planning Director Joel Mathews.
“We feel great sorrow for her and all her family members — and great disbelief.”
Mathews said Pilavin was “an attractive, intelligent, witty girl, and a caring mother,” whom the mayor was exceedingly proud of.
An emotionally distraught Menard was on her way to work when she called her secretary and several department heads to inform them Carrie had died.
She and her companion, Daniel Grabowski, then left for Newton to join grieving relatives.
“I think everybody’s in shock,” said City Clerk Pauline Payeur. “I think it’s just a tragic event and everyone at City Hall is overwhelmed and feeling terrible for the mayor and her family.”
Pilavin was one of the mayor’s two children, including Kevin Menard of Utah, a career jet fighter pilot for the Air Force who has served several tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. Though her role as mother seldom received the attention reserved for her public life, Menard maintained close ties with her children, visiting them often and calling them almost every day by telephone. She also relished her role as grandmother to her growing family.
Pilavin’s full name was Carrie Millicente Menard Pilavin and she was also the daughter of Robert A. Menard II of Woodland Road, according to records at City Hall. She would have turned 32 on May 28. She and her husband, a co-owner of Harley Davidson motorcycle dealerships in Pawtucket and Framingham, Mass., had been married about six years, friends say.
Howard Croll, a lawyer and former probate judge in the city, said Carrie met her husband-to-be at a political fundraiser for the mayor’s inaugural run for the chief executive’s job in 1995. Croll threw the fundraiser at his home in the city and is sometimes credited with introducing the couple.
Pilavin was cover-girl beautiful, said Croll, and she was often seen walking with her elegantly groomed giant poodles, Max and Ben, one charcoal black and the other snowball white.
“She was a very, very nice girl, extremely kind, and very beautiful,” said Croll. “This is just such an unfortunate tragedy, it’s just really beyond words.”
Menard had been scheduled to brief members of the City Council at Harris Hall tonight on the city’s financial condition, but she has turned the matter over to Mathews and Finance Director Ted Przybyla, Mathews said.
Menard is serving a record seventh term and had announced her retirement last year, effective June 15, only to rescind the announcement after returning from a visit with her son in Utah. Her daughter’s death comes as Menard, who took great pride in restoring fiscal stability to the city, grapples with unprecedented budget challenges in an era of shrinking state, federal and local resources. Menard had made it clear to colleagues and members of the press of late that this would be her last term.
So far, details of Pilavin’s funeral arrangements have not been announced and it is unknown when Menard will return to work.