Mary Margaret Crossman Chase
CHASE, Mary Margaret Crossman, 93, Gray, March 25, 2014. A memorial gathering will be announced in May.
Mary Margaret Crossman Chase
GRAY – Mary Margaret Crossman Chase, passed away peacefully at home March 25, 2014, she was 93. Born February 16, 1921, in Dover-Foxcroft, she was the first of three daughters born to D. Raymond and Martha (Smith) Crossman. After her mother died when Mary was five years old, she was mentored much of her early life by her mother’s friend, Mary Margaret (Buswell) Nash for whom she had been named.
From the time she was a little girl, Mary knew she wanted to be a Librarian and would make her younger sisters be the patrons of her make-believe library in the book-shelf lined hallway in their home. As a teenager, she loved to dance and spent many hours at dances in Dexter and at the dance pavilion at Sebec Lake.
She graduated from Foxcroft Academy in 1939 and then attended the University of Maine at Orono where she majored in Liberal Arts and met her future husband, Richard H. Chase. She left college at the end of her junior year following the bombing of Pearl Harbor to marry Dick before he was shipped out to the South Pacific.
After the war, they settled in Dick’s hometown of Sharon, MA, where they raised their three children in a happy and loving home. As a young wife and mother, her joy came from being a homemaker in the truest sense of the word. She was an excellent cook and gardener, loved nature walks to Devil’s Brook and reading bedtime stories to her children. She was an active member of the First Congregational Church of Sharon and a Girl Scout leader.
All the time her love of books kept her librarian dream alive. When her youngest child was in high school, she obtained her library science credentials and went to work at the Sharon Public Library and then Wind in the Pines, a private school for girls in Norton, MA.
Mary and Dick came back to Maine settling in Falmouth in 1971. The following year she began her favorite job of all as a Librarian at Memorial Elementary School in New Gloucester where she stayed until she retired in 1984.
In retirement, Mary and Dick travelled, spent time with family at their camp on Little Sebago Lake, and just enjoyed life.
Mary was pre-deceased by her husband of 60 years in 2002; and her sisters, Harriet Harmon of Milo and Dorothy Lewis of Dover-Foxcroft.
She is survived by her children, Donald Chase of Manchester, NH, Leslie Fumarola of Standish, ME, and Nancy Archibald of Gray; seven grandchildren: Richard Chase II of Gray, Dona Herland of Derry, NH, Thomas Fumarola Jr. of Lisbon, ME, Kristen Fumarola of Boston, Meredith Sicilia of Duxbury, MA, Emanuel Archibald of Gray and Sarah Sallaz of Gorham, ME; and seven great-grandchildren: Jamie, Justin, Tyler, Brisa, Lucia, Chase, and Connor.
A memorial gathering will be announced in May. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to: Memorial School Library, 86 Intervale Rd., New Gloucester, ME 04260.