Irene B. Benton, 86 NASHUA, N.H. - Irene B. Benton, 86 of Nashua, New Hampshire, formerly of Cambridge, passed away at the South New Hampshire Medical Center in Nashua on Sunday December 13, 2009. She was born in Cambridge on June 21, 1923 and was a daughter of the late Sidney P. and Ethel Mae Horner Bell. She attended schools in Cambridge and graduated from Cambridge High School in 1941. After graduating from high school she had worked in the main office of the Phillips Packing Co. On February 26, 1949 she was married to James T. Benton. Mr. Benton passed away on February 15, 1994. For a number of years she had made her home in Chelmsford, MA. Mrs. Benton had been a member of the Church of the Nazarene in Lowell, MA where she had taught Sunday School. She had been in failing health for the past two weeks and had been a patient at the South New Hampshire Medical Center for the past two weeks where she passed away on Sunday morning. Survivors include two sons James T. Benton, Jr. and his wife Darlene Benton of Laurel, DE and Richard A. Benton and his wife Linda Benton of Nashua, NH, four grandchildren James T. Benton III, Christopher Benton, Benjamin Benton and Samantha Benton, and several nieces and nephews. In addition to her husband she was preceded in death by three brothers Sidney Bell and Birdsall L. Bell and Leslie Bell. A funeral service will be 1 p.m., Thursday afternoon at the Thomas Funeral Home in Cambridge with the Rev. Richard Prahl officiating. Interment will follow at Greenlawn Cemetery. The family will receive friends during the hour preceding the service.