Notes

Note N13088 Index

Arnold was a veteran of World War I. He served in the U.S. Navy.

Notes

Note N13094 Index

Julian was a dairy farmer in Hartford, Maine.

Notes

Note N13097 Index

Paul was a salesman in Berlin, New Hampshire.

Notes

Note N13118 Index

Erland served 30 years in the U.S. Army at National Security Agency. He later worked for the U.S. Postal Service for 11 years as a letter carrier and then as a bus driver for the Telstar School District in Maine for 7 years. Erland was "a good old fashionaed country boy and a true gentleman."

Notes

Note N13121 Index

Norma lived a long and love-filled life. From her obituary [op.cit.], we learn that she was a hard worker, and she taught her children the value of work. One of her favorite sayings was "If it's not happening easily, you're doing something wrong."
As a young women, she worked for a short time in a leather-tanning factory, before leaving that job to become a waitress. Among the businesses (in Portland, Maine) she served were the Splendid Restaurant, the Casco Room at the St. Regis Hotel, the Tavern in the Town at the Eastland Hotel, and, in Poland Spring, the Poland Spring House. One year, she "waitressed" her way as far West as Wichita Falls, Texas, before becoming homesick as Christmas approached.
During World War II, she worked at the Pratt & Whitney aircraft engine factory in Hartford, Connecticut, and as a "Rosie the Riveter" welder at the New England Shipyards in South Portland, Maine.
Between 1956-1970, she was a teacher's aide at the North School. When she left that position, the children presented her with a small plaque that read "Norma Connolly Teacher-Friend." She always treasured that plaque.
From 1970-1986, she was a telephone operator for the New England Telephone & Telegraph Company (later NYNEX, even later Verizon). She was a member of the Telephone Pioneers.
The above information tells what she did for work. But, as the writer of her obituary puts it so well: What she was "really about was love. She bubbled over with love and this affected everyone with whom she came into contact. She made the world a much better place."
A couple of examples of how she expressed her love and concern for others are these:
While living on Munjoy Hill in Portland (supposedly a tough place to raise a family), she would string lights over the basketball court and hold summer evening dances for the neighborhood youth.
When a nearby house was razed for urban renewal, Norma made the empty space into a garden (one of the largest on Portland's east end), with peas by the 4th of July and strawberries all summer. Another of her favorite sayings was "Count that day lost whose low descending sun views from thy hand no worthy object done."
After their mutual retirements in 1986, Norma and Paul moved to Leisure World in Mesa, Arizona. She wrote a regular column for the Leisure World News, including an especially personal reflection on her visit to Ireland in July 1992, a story she titled "Up She Flew."
Sometime around 2000, she suffered a severe stroke that left her with expressive aphasia (the inablilty to speak or write). After Paul's death in 2001, Norma returned to Portland, Maine. She lived three years at The Woods at Casco, then, from January 2005 to her death, at Saint Joseph's Manor.
She is buried in Evergreen Cemetery in Portland, Maine.

Notes

Note N13125 Index

Lois enjoyed genealogy, gardening and crossword puzzles.

Notes

Note N13126 Index

For 9 years, Gail worked as a secretary for WRUM Radio in Rumford. For 2 years, she worked at the Madison Hotel.

Notes

Note N13131 Index

Neil graduated from Bridgton Academy. He served in the U.S. Navy during World War II, as a gunner on the USS Tarawa (aircraft carrier). After the war, he and his father opened Ward's Auto Body Shop, which they ran for a few years. Other jobs that Neil held were at Wilner Wood Heel Co. in South Paris, the South Portland shipyard, as a bus driver for the Tarbox Company in Harrison, as a carpenter in Casco, and his own Building and Remodeling business.