Doris E. (Colby) Miete, 91, of Whitefield, passed away May 20 at Country Manor Nursing Home in Coopers Mills, with family by her side.
Born Nov. 17, 1917, she was the first of seven children born to Chester and Marieta (Kennedy) Colby. Doris attended Coopers Mills grammar school and graduated from Cony High School. She then went to Gorham State Teachers College in Gorham.
Doris taught school in both of the one-room schoolhouses in Somerville. During WWII, she worked at Bath Iron Works, piloting training planes to teach new pilots how to fly. During the Korean War, she was a civil defense airplane spotter in Coopers Mills.
In 1946 she married Olavi (Ool) Miete. They had one son, Jon.
Doris went back to school at the University of Maine at Orono, then taught fourth grade at Sheldon Street Grammar School in Farmingdale until her retirement.
She loved teaching and was very passionate about it. In her spare time, she took classes in oil painting, tole painting, pottery, stained glass and many other crafts. She had an insatiable hunger to learn new things. She would master one thing, then move on to something new. Her hunger to learn was as strong as her hunger to teach.
Doris was more than a grandmother to her granddaughter, Jessica. She helped tremendously in raising her.
Doris had a vegetable garden. Most years, her pride and joy was having peas before the Fourth of July. She loved to spend summers at the Colby camps on China and Sheepscot Lakes. She would go to Pemaquid Trail and stay at Vi McCormic’s camp with other teachers every summer for a couple of weeks at a time. In her spare time, she enjoyed a good game of golf with her sister, Joanne, and husband Richard. She enjoyed every season and had an activity that she enjoyed for each one. In the fall, she loved to go leaf peeping.
She was a member of St. Giles Episcopal Church in Jefferson and a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution. She devoted more than 15 years and countless hours to delivering Meals on Wheels for Senior Spectrum, based in Hallowell. She always said it was so much more than just volunteering to drop off meals. She always put others ahead of herself, and it gave her great satisfaction to do just that.
Doris was predeceased by her parents; brothers, Rufus and Russ Colby; and sister, Margaret Mooney.
She is survived by her son, Jon A. Miete of Whitefield; granddaughter, Jessica J. and husband Dustin Ward of Whitefield; special great-grandchildren, Matthew J. Miete and Shauna M. Wade, both of Whitefield, and Morgan J. Ross of Colebrook, N.H.; sisters, Juanita Foye of Coopers Mills, Joanne Gross and husband Richard of Farmingdale, and Jeanne Feyler and husband Clint of Mount Vernon; brother, Jerre Colby and wife Carolyn of Windsor; along with several nieces, nephews and friends.
Because education and children were such a large and important part of who Doris was, in lieu of flowers, donations may be made to a college fund for her great-grandchildren in care of Jon Miete, 428 Mills Rd., Whitefield, ME 04353.
A celebration of her life will be set forth at a later date.
