Constance Pace died at Cove’s Edge in Damariscotta on Aug. 31.
She was born Constance Barbara Scranton to Herbert Scranton and Emma Kazwski on Jan. 21, 1917, in West Haven, Conn. The family lived beside and worked in the Savin Rock Amusement Park in West Haven, Conn., circumstance that colored her good humor and general outlook all her long life.
Connie first came to Maine as a waterfront counselor for Camp Makaria on Damariscotta Lake and went on to become a Registered Maine Guide.
She married Bob Romero, a physicist and electronics engineer, in 1945, and the family summered in the area: first on Damariscotta Lake in 1955 and Weber Pond in Bremen until 1967, when they moved from Mamaroneck, N.Y. to Friendship full-time.
Connie studied ceramics at the Clay Art Center in Port Chester, N.Y. and operated a summer studio and store in the family barn from 1960 to 1980, known as Muscongus Pottery. Her signature “weed bottle” was such a success that her guess was that over the years she made roughly 20,000 of them, each one thrown and glazed by hand, each a unique piece.
She was an avid reader and an active and enthusiastic volunteer for community arts organizations, such as The Round Top Center for the Arts. Her real passion however, was for swimming. As a young woman she regularly swam long distances in Long Island Sound and was a competitor with the New Haven Swim Club at Yale. She was in Weber Pond daily, temperature permitting, all her adult life and was always on the lookout for an indoor pool in the winter.
Connie was a founding member of Muscongus Pond Association, a group dedicated to preserving the pristine waters and wildlife of the lake.
She married Anderson Pace, chemist, geologist and diving coach, in 1978, and they enjoyed each other’s good humor and warm company until his death in 1985, whereupon she moved from Friendship to Damariscotta village.
She fell in love with the southwest, New Mexico in particular, and became a part-time resident of Santa Fe for the last 25 years of her life. She devoted countless hours (and miles) to researching Romero family history and the history of the southwest region.
Connie Pace is survived by her son, Howard and wife Casey and their children Andy and Jenny Romero.
There will be a memorial celebration of this remarkable life in the spring of 2007; details to be announced by Strong Funeral Home and Cremation Center, 612 Main St., Damariscotta.
Donations may be made in Connie’s name to Round Top Center for the Arts, P.O. Box 1316, Damariscotta, ME 04543.
