Elaine Merrill Grover, 84, passed away on March 18, 2023, at Cove’s Edge in Damariscotta.
Elaine was born on Dec. 18, 1938, in Bradley, to Lloyd H. and Evelyn (Garland) Merrill.
The family moved to Woolwich where Elaine attended the Montsweag School and then Morse High School. In 1955, Elaine married Ernest H. (Buster) Grover and they were married for 55 years, until Buster’s death. Over the years, she waitressed at the Davis Island restaurant in Edgecomb and New Meadows Inn. She also worked in the clothing departments at Woolworth’s and W. T. Grant’s Department stores. Later she was a forklift operator at the Harding’s Plant in Brunswick.
In the early days, Elaine drove stock cars in the ladies Powder Puff derby at Beech Ridge Speedway and Unity Raceway. Later, she became one of the first women to race a full season with the men at Oxford Plains Speedway and Wiscasset Speedway. In later years, she and Buster enjoyed watching stock car races all over New England and parts of Canada. They loved to attend NASCAR races on the east coast.
Elaine attended Woolwich-Wiscasset Baptist Church. She enjoyed being with family and watching her grandchildren play sports. She enjoyed helping set up for the Wiscasset Senior Center dinners and loved her friends there.
She was predeceased by her husband, Buster; daughter, Gail Andretta; brothers, Lloyd and Gerald Merrill; and sister, Dianne Davis.
She is survived by her son, Daniel Grover and wife, Heidi, of Wiscasset; brother, Robert and wife, Bonnie, of Windham; grandchildren, Heath Peaslee, of Brunswick, John Andretta, James Andretta, and Michael Andretta, all of Wiscasset, Kelsey Grover and Logan Grover, both of Portland, and Cameron Grover, of Bedford, Texas; as well as five great-grandchildren, Tyler, Noah, Olivia and Brayden Peaslee, of Westport Island, and Adrianna Andretta, of Wiscasset; and her many Grover and Merrill relatives.
We’d like to thank her caregivers at Wiscasset and Jefferson Green and the many lovely staff at Cove’s Edge who took such good care of her.
A graveside service will be held at Greenlawn Cemetery in Wiscasset later in the spring. Condolences may be made online at daiglefuneralhome.com.
