Leanne Beukelman Smith, 69, of Walpole, died July 27 while under hospice care at Cove’s Edge Skilled Nursing Unit. The daughter of Henry and Elisabeth Sand Beukelman, she was born June 19, 1938, in East Boothbay. She always thought she should have been a Damariscotta native; unfortunately her Methodist minister dad’s Sunday evening service prevented the drive to Damariscotta, so she was born in the Methodist parsonage.
Following the death of her mother in 1940, her father married Ruth Alice Lewis of Sidney in 1942 and the new family, including older sister Bonnie, moved to Camden. In 1947-48 the family, that now included younger sister Celia, left for a year’s tour of America, hauling a one-wheeled trailer behind a 1940 Buick. Formal education was hit or miss that year. Leanne’s geography education was sadly unimproved by the travels, but the experience of widened horizons shaped her future as a teacher.
Landing in Woburn, Mass. In 1948, Leanne attended school there until her junior year when she transferred to nearby Winchester High School from which she graduated. After her graduation from Swarthmore College in 1959, she received an M.A. in 1961 from the University of Minnesota where she met her future husband, John Barnes Smith of Brandon, Vt.
Following their wedding in August 1961, the couple began teaching careers in Riverdale and Mount Vernon, N.Y., moving to New Haven, Conn. in 1965 where John taught and Leanne began to raise their two sons.
Eager to continue her academic career, she taught night classes at Southern Connecticut State College which became Southern Connecticut State University about the time she became a full-time teacher. In 1979 she furthered her education, first with a Certificate of Advanced Studies from Wesleyan University and later a Ph.D. from Yale University in 1983. Her duties at Southern included serving as English Graduate Director and teaching a variety of American Literature graduate courses as well as introductory undergraduate courses. She retired as English Professor Emeritus in 1995.
In retirement, John and Leanne returned to the Walpole farmhouse where they had summered since 1964. After a year of winterizing and renovating the house while living in it, they began to enjoy the pleasures of a Maine retirement. Accepting the oversight of relatives in Waterville, they nevertheless found time to build stone walls, become stewards of several acres and enjoy the cultural opportunities in the area. After John died in 2001, Leanne became active in the Coastal Senior College and local book groups.
Particularly rewarding to Leanne was the chance to become close to her several great nieces and nephews, writing stories and plays for them to produce, and to provide yearly housing to musicians of the Salt Bay Chamberfest.
She is survived by sons Christopher Wallace Smith of New Haven, Conn., and Jeffrey Sand Smith of Walpole; sister Bonnie R. Wynne and brother-in-law Rev. Edward J. Wynne, Jr., of Damariscotta; sister Celia B. Garvin of Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.; her husband’s brothers and their wives, Robert and Henrietta Smith of Cape Elizabeth and David and Priscilla Smith of Walpole; and 11 dearly loved nieces and nephews and their children.
Memorial, 2 p.m., Sat., Aug. 18, at The Darrows Barn at River Arts (formerly Round Top Center for the Arts), 512 Bus. Rt. 1, Damariscotta.
At Leanne’s request, no flowers, please. Donations in her memory may be made to The Salt Bay Chamberfest, PO Box 1268, Damariscotta, ME 04543.
Arrangements are under the direction of Coast of Maine Cremation and Funeral Services, Waldoboro.
