Friday, April 18, 2008
FARMINGTON - Mary Elizabeth York, 95, of Wilton, died Tuesday, April 15, at the Sandy River Center for Health Care and Rehabilitation.
FARMINGTON - Mary Elizabeth York, 95, of Wilton, died Tuesday, April 15, at the Sandy River Center for Health Care and Rehabilitation.
She was born Nov. 2, 1912, in Wilton, in the house on Main Street which she called home for all of her 95 years of life. Her father, Albert Isaiah York, M.D., delivered her. Her mother, Maude Feader York, was in the second class of nurses to graduate from the Central Maine General Hospital School of Nursing. There were two in the class.
She grew up in a time of many changes, from the horse and buggy era to the present with all its marvels. She graduated from Wilton Academy as valedictorian of her class in 1930. She graduated from Bates College in 1934, with a degree in English and languages and subsequently taught at the high school level for all of her working life.
She held positions at Flagstaff High School, Weld High School, Wilton Academy and Jay High School, teaching English, Latin, French and then guidance. She coached girls field hockey at Wilton Academy with consistently winning teams despite playing against larger and private schools.
To aid her teaching career, she took advanced courses at the University of Southern California, Auburn University in Alabama, Indiana University and the University of Maine, where she received her master's degree. Some of these courses required traveling, including a trip to pre-Castro Cuba. She visited every state with the exception of Alaska, most of the National Parks and made trips to Western Europe, the British Isles (England, Scotland and Wales), and Hawaii. She attended the Passion Play at Oberammergau in the Bavarian Alps and kissed the Blarney Stone in Ireland.
She was elected delegate to national teachers' conventions in St. Louis and Miami, and was a member of the Maine Teachers' Association, the National Teachers' Association and the American Association of University Women. She joined Eastern Star in 1937, and was secretary for its local chapter for 47 years. She was a charter member of the Weld Historical Society and has been a long-time member of the Wilton Historical Society and the Wilton Congregational Church, where she taught Sunday school for high school students and served on the church committee.
She is survived by her devoted sister, Ruth E. York of Wilton; Bruce's wife, Nancy York of Mattapoisett, Mass.; grandnieces, Sandra York of Richmond and Megan York and her husband, Brad Adams, of Montclair, N.J.; great-grandnephews, Lincoln and Gibson Adams; her niece, Priscilla York Dowd and her husband, Joseph, of Mattapoisett, Mass.; grandniece, Amy Dowd of Massachusetts; and grandnephew, Dr. Peter Dowd of Wisconsin.
She was predeceased by her brother, Albert Isaiah York Jr., M.D.; and her nephew, Bruce York.
