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Mary Harnois
WELLS - Mary Christine (O’Rourke) Curtin Harnois passed away in DeBary, Fla. on Jan. 20, 2005 after a brief illness while vacationing with her husband, John.
She was born the daughter of the late Michael and Mary (Moriarty) O’Rourke on Dec. 9, 1924 and raised in the Churchill section of Holyoke. She graduated from Sacred Heart High School, was a World War II veteran and was honorably discharged from the Women’s Army Corp in 1945. She was a waitress for more than 50 years working for establishments such as The Mountain View, The Valley Arena, Kelly’s Lobster House, Gleason’s Townhouse, Gramp’s (all in the Holyoke / Chicopee, Mass. area) and finished her working life at Mike’s Clam Shack in her much-loved Wells. She was also employed by the Holyoke Police Department for several years as a police matron.
She leaves behind to cherish her memory, her beloved husband of 40 years, John Harnois; three sons, Ted Curtin and his wife Darlene of Chicopee, Mass., Michael Harnois and his wife Diane of Chicopee, Mass., and John Harnois and his wife Barbara of Wells; two daughters, Ann (Curtin) Guilbeau and her husband Tony, and Elizabeth (Harnois) Cournoyer, both of Chicopee, Mass.; eight beautiful grandchildren; and six delightful great-grandchildren.
A memorial service was held at Bibber Memorial Chapel, Wells.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Patient Services Fund at Seacoast Dialysis Center, 195 Commerce Way, Portsmouth, NH 03801 or the Salvation Army, 147 Berkeley St., Boston, MA 02116.
Arrangements by Bibber Memorial Chapel, Wells.
David Bradford
KENNEBUNK - David Jordan Bradford, 73, died Jan. 23, 2005 at
Kennebunk Nursing Home after a brief illness.
He was born in Biddeford Jan. 16, 1932, son of Alfred S. Bradford and
Carol (Dillingham) Small.
He attended Biddeford schools, then graduated from Bridgton Academy and the University of New Hampshire. During the Korean War, he served in the Army and was stationed in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. He was a manager for National Gypsum in Portsmouth, N.H., Danbury, Conn. and Albion, N.Y.
Later, he became district sales manager for McBee Systems, opening their Maine and New Hampshire territories. In 1990 he founded Bradford Business Systems in Raymond, N.H. By the time of his death the company had expanded to include Bradford Copy Centers in Raymond, N.H. as well as in Sanford and Wells, Maine.
In 1955 he married Vivian (Blanchard) Bradford, now of Saco.
In 1991 he married Janet B. (Pease) Tiedemann, and they lived in Portland before moving to Kennebunk in 1997.
A fan of Dixieland music, he played banjo in the State Street Traditional
Jazz Band and Doc’s Banjo Band.
He was a member of the Society for the Preservation of Ballroom Dancing, and loved poetry and word games.
A true gentleman, he will be sorely missed. His charming, non-judgmental manner helped family, friends and employees alike to discover their best “true
selves”; a gift to treasure by all who knew him.
He is survived by his wife; one brother, John D. of Arundel; two sons, Timothy M. of Burlington, Ky., and William K. of Wells; four stepdaughters, Gail Wormwood of Limington, Karen Huddle of Richmond, Va., Kaye Tiedemann of Redding, Conn., and Laura Barbato of Coral Springs, Fla.; 10 grandchildren; and one great-grandson.
A memorial service is planned for in the spring.
Dennett, Craig & Pate Funeral Home, 365 Main St., Saco is in charge of the arrangements.
Lawrence Brown
OGUNQUIT - Lawrence Whitcomb Brown, 72, passed peacefully on Jan. 29, 2005 at 10 in the morning at York Hospital in York. At his side were his sons: Sam of Casco, Eric of Waterville, and Hutch of Old Orchard Beach.
He was born on Feb. 15, 1932 in Boston, Mass., the son of Lawrence and Margie Brown. He served his country as a U.S. Marine on the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Saipan in the early 1950s.
He worked as a circulation supervisor at Framingham State College from 1980 to 1995 in Framingham, Mass.
Larry, as he was affectionately known by all, was a lover of birds and the outdoors, he enjoyed idling away the hours by the Ogunquit Beach, loved listening to public radio, and rediscovered his love for the Red Sox in the last few years of his life. The World Series victory gave him pleasure.
He drew particular joy from his vicarious participation in his three sons’ lives.
He was predeceased by his mother, Margie, his father Larry, and his brother and sister, Ronnie and Beverly.
Survivors include his afore-mentioned three sons and their mother, Chris Hudson; two daughters-in-law, Amy and Erin, four beautiful grandchildren, Morgan, Luke, Max and Molly; one sister, Barbara; three nieces, Jennifer, Tracy and Lisa Allen; two nephews, Chris Allen and Andrew Keesan; and also by his cat, Cat.
A memorial service will be held at 11:30 a.m., Saturday at the Lucas & Eaton Funeral Home, 91 Long Sands Rd., York. Visiting hours will be held from 9:30-11:30 a.m. Saturday at the funeral home.
In lieu of flowers donations may be made to the Maine Audubon Society, 118 U.S. Route 1, Falmouth, ME 04105.
Barbara Grimes
WELLS - Barbara Terry (Parsons) Grimes, 87, poet; teacher; artist; widow of New Hampshire Supreme Court Chief Justice William A. Grimes; and a resident of Drakes Island in Wells for more than for 50 years, has died. She passed away at Southern Maine Medical Center in Biddeford following a brief illness.
She and her husband built their cottage at Drakes Island in the early 1950s and spent more and more time there as years passed. During the 1950s and ‘60s, they were often among the only families in residence in the spring and fall. After her husband’s death in 1999, she made Drakes Island her year-round home.
Many seacoast area children knew her as “The Shell Lady.” An avid student and collector of seashells, she provided countless youngsters with their first glimpse of a chambered nautilus and their first appreciation of the equally beautiful if less exotic limpets and periwinkles found on our own North Atlantic beaches. A collection of her seashells was on display at the Sea Road Elementary School in Kennebunk for several years.
Many children also received their first experience of poetry, and wrote their first poems, in workshops she held in the schools of Dover and Portsmouth, N.H.
As a poet she tackled subjects big and small, but she will perhaps be best remembered for her meditations on Love and Nature. Her work appeared in the Ladies Home Journal, the Christian Science Monitor, New Hampshire Profiles, the Maine Sunday Telegram and numerous special-interest and literary magazines.
Residents of the Dover, N.H. area during the 1950s through the 1980s knew her as one of that region’s most active volunteers. At various times she served as president of the Dover Woman’s Club, Community Concerts Association, Lioness Club, Northam Colonists Historical Society, and Wentworth Hospital Auxiliary Board. She was chairman of the trustees of the Dover Public Library during the 1970s and a trustee for almost two decades. She directed and acted in community theater, delivered readings and oral book reviews to women’s groups, wrote and delivered the commentary for fashion shows, and often helped choose the winner of the city’s annual holiday lighting contest.
In the 1950s and ‘60s, she was a member of the Dover Girl Scout Council, as well as a troop leader, first for teens, later for mentally handicapped girls at the Great Bay School in Portsmouth. When local Scouts and their families filled the Dover Armory for an evening of song, folk dances and recitations, she was mistress of ceremonies.
She was born June 4, 1917, in Winthrop, Mass., the eldest daughter of Carl Ellsworth Parsons and Helen Terry Parsons. She was educated in Weymouth, Mass., and graduated from the University of New Hampshire in 1939 with a degree in English. While at UNH she was a member of Alpha Xi Delta sorority and, later, a trustee and president of the sorority house corporation.
She moved to Dover with her family while she was in college and it was there that she met Bill Grimes. They were married in 1940 and, when World War II broke out, she accompanied him to military posts first in Pensacola, Fla., and then in San Francisco, where she lived while he flew missions across the Pacific. There she started writing poems about being a young wife awaiting her husband’s return and about her love for him.
After the war, they returned to Dover, and shortly thereafter her husband was appointed to the New Hampshire Superior Court, beginning a long career in the judiciary that eventually led them both to a life of frequent and purposeful travel, as Judge Grimes became active nationally in the continuing education of judges. Between the early 1960s and the late 1990s, they were often away from New England for several months at a time, participating in seminars and programs at conference centers and universities throughout the United States, Canada
and the Caribbean.
Noticing that most of the judges’ spouses had little to do on these trips, she became instrumental in the development of stimulating educational programs for the judges’ spouses. For these efforts she was honored many times by the American Bar Association and the National Judicial College. In the summer of 1998, they appeared together on the cover of the Judicial College’s alumni magazine, which featured a tribute to their 35 years of service together to the cause of judicial education in the United States.
After Chief Justice Grimes reached mandatory retirement from the bench in 1981, he started a new career as a visiting law professor, and she, now in her 70s, went with him, quickly adapting to the life of a faculty spouse, first in San Diego and later at the University of Oklahoma. She made friends wherever she went and at one time was hand addressing more than 700 Christmas cards.
Christmas was the source of much of her artistic inspiration. She wrote more than two dozen Christmas poems. She also decorated tens of thousands of satin Christmas tree balls with pearls, sequins and ribbons, and gave them away to friends and family all around the country.
In her later years, she succumbed to senile dementia but retained her love of the southern Maine coast until the end. Not a day would pass that she did not say, “Look at that ocean!” She also took great comfort from her beloved caregivers and friends Terry Cote, Rosemary Pearson, Terry’s daughter Stephanie and other members of the Cote family, as well as many wonderful women from the Home Instead agency in Kennebunk who cared for her. Her family will forever be grateful for their extraordinary kindness.
She was a devoted wife, mother and friend who will be sadly missed.
She is survived by one daughter, Gail Terry Grimes Whitmyer of San Francisco; one son, Gordon Francis Grimes of Durham, Maine; their spouses, Claude Whitmyer and Anne Grimes; two grandchildren, Katherine Ash Grimes and William Gordon Fraser (Judd) Grimes; one sister, Nancy Voss of Providence, R.I.; one sister-in-law, Dorothy Grimes Perry of Simsbury, Conn.; and many nieces and nephews.
At her request there will be no funeral.
A memorial service will be held at a later date.
Contributions in her memory may be sent to the Barbara Terry Grimes Fund for Poetry at the Dover Public Library, 73 Locust St., Dover, NH 03820.
In Memory of Drakes Island’s Own Poet: Barbara Terry Grimes.
Sidney Crawford Jr.
WELLS - Sidney C. Crawford Jr. 73, died Jan. 27, 2005 at Southern Maine Medical Center in Biddeford.
He was born in Worcester, Mass. on March 10, 1931, the son of Sidney and Doris (McCoslin) Crawford.
He was a member of the Morning Star Lodge, Worcester Commandry 5 Knight Templars.
He was predeceased by his wife Donna in 2004.
He is survived by his three sons, Jeffery Crawford of Newport, R.I., Christopher and his wife Karen Crawford of Worcester, Mass., and Jay Crawford of Kennebunk; and four grandchildren.
Services will be held at a future date at the family’s convenience.
Arrangements by Bibber Memorial Chapel, Kennebunk.
Connie Small
PORTSMOUTH, N.H. - Connie (Scovill) Small, 103, of Portsmouth, died on Jan. 25, 2004 at Mark H. Wentworth Home in Portsmouth.
She was born on June 4, 1901 in Lubec, Maine, the daughter of Ira and Mable (Myers) Scovill. She, along with her husband, spent 28 years tending lighthouses on the Maine and New Hampshire coasts. Lighthouses served were Channel Light, Avery Rock, Sequin, St. Croix (Dochets Island), and New Castle Light. After her husband’s death, she worked as head resident and interim dean of women at Farmington State College (now U of M, Farmington).
At the age of 85, she wrote the best selling book, “The Lighthouse Keepers Wife.” This autobiography is about “people risking their own lives to help men and ships: a life of order and duty.” As a result of writing this book, she received hundreds of letters from all over the world. In addition she received numerous citations from many influential people including two presidents. She was honored by hundreds at a gala celebration, by the American Lighthouse Foundation on her 100th birthday. She gave nearly 600 official lectures, the farthest of which took her West to Ohio where she was invited at the age of 92, to speak to medical students at Case Western University. In addition, she appeared on every major television network. She was truly an inspiration to all who knew her. Quoting from the last page in her book, “May the sunrise bring you hope and inspiration, the sunset the comfort of a day well spent.”
She was predeceased by her husband Elson, two brothers Gerald and Carlton Scoville, two sisters Minnie Allen and Alice Ramsdell.
She is survived by two nephews, John Scovill and his wife Gail of Houlton, Maine and Robin Scovill of Seabrook, N.H.; two nieces, Patricia Estabrook of Houlton, and Barbara Pruitt of Rockland; one sister-in-law, Lydia Scovill of Salisbury, Mass.; and special friends, Linda and Duncan Carson of Kittery.
A funeral was held on Friday at the First Congregational Church of Eliot on State Road.
Her family requests donations be made in her memory to the American Lighthouse Preservation, PO Box 889, Wells, ME 04090.
Arrangements are entrusted to the J.S. Pelkey Funeral Home of Kittery.
Carl Walters
WELLS - Carl J. Walters, 85, died Jan. 26, 2005 at York Hospital after a long illness.
He was born May 18, 1919 in Lancaster, N.Y., a son of John and Anna (Jerge) Walter.
He is survived by his loving wife of 62 years, Dorothea; two sons, John Walters of Syracuse, N.Y. and Michael Walters of Gloversville, N.Y.; two daughters, Judith Dineen of Ogunquit, and Mary Oates of Altamont, N.Y.; one brother, Robert Walters of Alden, N.Y.; one sister, Shirley Walter of Lancaster, N.Y.; seven grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.
A funeral service was held on Saturday at St. Mary’s Church.
Should friends desire memorial donations may be made to: Guilderland Music Parents, 2001 Inwood Terrace, Schenectady, NY 12303.
Arrangements by Bibber Memorial Chapel, Wells.
Marian Whelton
KENNEBUNK – Marian J. Whelton, 71, a resident of Kennebunk, died Jan. 23, 2005 at Kennebunk Nursing and Rehabilitation Center after a short illness.
She was born in Providence, R.I. on March 20, 1933, the daughter of Arthur and Eileen (McGawley) Lee. She graduated from Woonsocket, R.I. High School, the University of Rhode Island, and Simmons College School of Social Work, where she received a master’s of social work in 1960.
She worked as a social worker for several years in the Nashua, N.H. area at Community Council of Nashua, at Southern Maine Medical Center emergency room, and at several other social service agencies in southern Maine and New Hampshire.
She is survived by her husband of 44 years, Joseph; one son, Anthony J. Whelton of Milford, N.H.; and one daughter, Kathryn Whelton Hanson of Kennebunk. She was the beloved grandmother of Lucy Kathryn Henson, also of Kennebunk; and sister of Elizabeth Lee Meade of Smithfield, R.I.
She was an avid reader and gardener. She belonged to the Seacoast Garden Club, and she and her husband belonged to the Webhannet Golf Club for many years.
Services are private. There will be a memorial service in the spring.
Donations may be made in her memory to Simmons College School of Social Work Scholarship Fund, Office of Development, 300 The Fenway, Boston, MA 02115, or to Caring Unlimited, 257 Main St., Sanford, ME 04073.
Jean Buttignol
OGUNQUIT - Jean (Zuber) Buttignol, 91, died Jan. 20, 2005 at the York Hospital. She had been a resident of Ogunquit for 30 years. She was a loving wife, mother, and grandmother, and will be dearly missed.
Arrangements by the Johnson Funeral Home Inc., North Berwick.
