Eleanor Spears Dove, the beloved matriarch of Rhode Island’s Native American community and a legendary businesswoman, chef, confidante and spiritual leader, died Saturday at age 100. The passing of the state’s oldest Indian elicited impassioned tributes and a flood of memories from relatives and friends.

“Her work was done here on mother earth, the ancestors needed her in sky world,” daughter Dawn Dove told The Journal.

“She certainly was a role model of what hard work looks like, with perseverance and passion for the things you love,” said granddaughter Lorén Spears, executive director of Exeter’s Tomaquag Museum, the indigenous culture and history center, which Dove played an essential role in founding.

Along with her many professional accomplishments, "all that hard work," Spears told The Journal, "she still managed to have balance in her life to care for her family. She just had an amazing abundance of love and guidance to give to people. She had an amazing impact on so many lives. I looked to her as a role model of how to be, how to honor, respect and care for others.” As, said Spears, did so many, Native and non-Native alike.

In her obituary, the museum wrote: “Throughout her century of life, she represented the manifestation of love eternal. Mother to four, grandmother to ten, great grandmother to many, and a great-great grandmother to a growing few, her family has been at the heart of her life’s work. The makings of Eleanor are impossible to fully capture as she truly embodied all of the best attributes one can behold. For those who had the opportunity to witness the gentle power, regal grace, kindness, and sheer beauty (inside and out) of Eleanor, they know just how phenomenal this centenarian matriarch was.”

Namesake Eleanor Dove Harris, an advisor at the Metropolitan Regional Career and Technical Center in Providence, wrote on her Facebook page: “You have stood as the exemplar of how we all should live our lives. All of the good that your family carries is through your love. How lucky I have been to be your granddaughter, my love for you is eternal, we will remain connected throughout all space and time, until we meet in the stars. Travel well Gram.”

Shortly after she turned 100 on Aug. 1 last year, Dove shared her life’s story with the Journal during an afternoon at Tomaquag Museum. She spoke of meeting the late Ferris Dove, her husband, father of their four children and business partner in culinary enterprises capped by their Dovecrest Indian Restaurant, long closed but still fondly remembered and widely praised, including in The New York Times, when it was open.

“Pretty Flower,” as Dove was also known, was characteristically warm and gracious on that day, and her memory was crisp. She smiled when reflecting on having become a centenarian.

“It’s quite a thing,” she said. “Sometimes I surprise myself and say, ‘I’m 100?!’ But thank the Lord, I’m walking on my own, I can make most of my decisions myself. I’m pretty lucky. I had one aunt that lived to be 104. I don’t intend to see 104, but if I do, well, I do. And if I don’t, well, I don’t.”

One of the five children of Joseph Spears and Mildred Hardy Spears, Dove was celebrated during her 100th birthday celebration as “a traditional elder and matriarch of the Narragansett Tribal Nation.”

A celebration of Dove’s life will be held starting 10 a.m. Wednesday at the First Baptist Church of Hope Valley, with a graveside service to follow at First Hopkinton Cemetery on Chase Hill Road in Ashaway. In lieu of flowers the family suggest a donation in her name to her beloved Tomaquag Museum, 390 Summit Rd., Exeter 02822.

With reports from Staff Writer Brian Amaral.