Gertrude (Mead) Allen, 101, of Damariscotta died April 1 at her Hodgdon Green home.
Born July 23, 1912, in Waltham, Mass. to the late John and Mary Meade, she lived for 60 years in Newton, Mass. In 1983, she moved to Edgecomb, to a house built by her husband’s family in 1888. For the last three years, she lived at Hodgdon Green.
A journalism major who graduated from Boston University in 1934, she married and began family life and volunteer work that same year. She wrote press releases and articles for the Peabody Home for Crippled Children and the New England Farm and Garden Association, serving as regional editor for the National Farm and Garden magazine. For 10 years around WWII, she drove an ambulance for the Newton Red Cross. When her husband died in 1971, she soon became a law librarian at the Fourth District Court in Woburn, Mass., earning her certificate of librarianship in 1979 from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. She earned a Certificate of Advanced Study from Harvard Extension in 1983. She retained a connection with Boston through membership at Old South Church and life membership in the Law Librarians of New England and the Association of Boston Law Librarians.
Since retiring to Maine, she had served as an incorporator and friend of the Wiscasset Public Library and been active in the Garden Club of Wiscasset, the Edgecomb Historical Society, and the book and art groups of the Mid-Coast Maine American Association of University Women (AAUW). She had been called the most senior “senior” in the Coastal Senior College, attended Live at the Met performances at the Lincoln Theater, and found joy in painting classes at Hodgdon Green. She was a voracious reader of history and biography, kept journals for many years, and believed in written correspondence with family and friends. Family gatherings were her greatest pleasure.
She was predeceased by her husband, the Hon. W. Lloyd Allen; step-children, Wingate Haggett Allen, Bruce Buckner Allen, and Mary Jane (Jackie) Cheney; and sisters, Florence Morgan, and Ruth Brooks.
She is survived by daughter, Melody Lloyd Allen and husband Jeffrey Vale of Warwick, R.I.; granddaughter, Susan B. O’Brien and husband Edward of Portsmouth, N.H.; grandsons, Bruce B. Allen Jr. and wife Linda of Ridgefield, Conn., and Dexter E. Allen and wife Anne of Norwalk, Conn.; five great-grandchildren; two great-great-grandchildren; and several generations of nieces and nephews.
Friends and family are invited to a celebration of her life to be held at 2 p.m., Sat., May 17 at the Second Congregational Church in Newcastle. Burial will be private at the Highland Cemetery in Edgecomb.
Contributions in Gertrude’s memory would be appreciated for Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens, PO Box 234, Boothbay, ME 04537 or for the Farnsworth Art Museum, 16 Museum St., Rockland, ME 04841.
