Elizabeth Joy Kennedy Massanek, 58, passed from this earth June 20 while at home in the presence of her loving husband Gary Massanek and sons Alexander and Geoffrey Massanek. Betsy succumbed to the rapid onset of cancer.
Betsy was born Jan. 29, 1957 in Fair Oaks, Mich., the daughter of a Chrysler engineer father and a mother who was both homemaker and business entrepreneur.
She grew up in a warm, loving, and enriching home. As a high school student she was the rare girl wanting to attend shop classes where she developed her love for metal smithing, an art she was to practice the rest of her life. This love was cemented during a summer at the Haystack School for the Arts. She attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison to study art metal and graduated with a degree in art education.
Betsy spent her entire life summering at The Ledges, a family cottage on MacMahan Island, which her grandparents purchased 82 years ago. Many idyllic childhood summers were shared by a close circle of lifelong friends there. The island was the spiritual center of her family. She also served on the island company’s board and was their bookkeeper for a period.
She met Gary at a West Bath contra dance in the summer of 1975. Four years later they were married and moved to Syracuse N.Y., where Gary attended the Graduate School of Architecture. Betsy worked at the university library, where she also served as a union representative. They moved to South Portland and started their family. With motherhood Betsy began a career as a self-employed bookkeeper, establishing her business “By the Numbers”. She was fond of saying that this vocation enabled her to see her boys off on the bus in the morning and be there when they returned from school. Betsy was always deeply involved in her sons’ upbringing, overseeing homework, leading Cub Scout dens, and standing for hours on the playing field sidelines.
When they moved to Baltimore, Betsy was brought into the world of nonprofit work by her MacMahan friend Dru Schmidt-Perkins. Betsy became the bookkeeper to many organizations from local historic preservation groups to state-wide land preservation organizations. Her ability to translate arcane accounting jargon, combined with her mastery of Quick Books and the finer points of tax law, was highly valued by her clients.
In the fall of 2013, when Gary retired, Betsy returned to Maine to make their new home in Brunswick. This move brought her back to a place she dearly loved. Betsy continued her work for non-profits, helping Skidompha Library, the Lincoln Theater and the Damariscotta River Land Trust with their bookkeeping.
Betsy and Gary enjoyed many travels together, including trips to England, Europe, the Galapagos Islands, the west coast, and Florida; but most fondly, to her ancestral home Scotland. She was the granddaughter of a Scottish immigrant and took great pride in and certainly displayed traits of that heritage.
Betsy loved nature, gardening, art, architecture, Mission style antiques, and a continual series of pet dogs. She was a voracious reader and a superlative cook. Her specialty was soup making, a talent which runs deep in the family. She always kept her passion for art metal work and especially for MacMahan Island.
Most importantly Betsy was a caring, loving friend, daughter, sister, mother and wife. She was determined, strong willed and tenacious, yet was always courteous and a lady. She is sorely missed by her family and many friends.
She was predeceased by her parents, Jane and Christopher Kennedy of Damariscotta.
She is survived by her husband, Gary; sons, Alexander and Geoffrey; brother, David Kennedy of Brooklyn, N.Y.; and sister, Martha Kennedy of Baltimore, Md.
A Celebration of Life will be held for Betsy at 2 p.m., Sat., July 25 at the Bath Maritime Museum.
In lieu of flowers the family suggests that donations be made to either 1000 Friends of Maryland, 1209 N Calvert St, Baltimore, MD 21202 (www.FriendsofMD.org) or Skidompha Library, 184 Main St., Damariscotta, ME 04543 (www.Skidompha.org).
