Lisa K. Shenton, 66, passed away peacefully on the morning of Dec. 2, 2025 from a brain tumor. She spent her final weeks at home, surrounded by loved ones.
Lisa was born on Feb. 1, 1959 in Los Angeles, Calif. The eldest of four siblings, she spent her childhood in nearby Rancho Palos Verdes, steeped in the irreverent creativity of her father, artist and inventor Donald Kracke, and the whip-smart humor and charm of her mother, Margaret McHugh. She studied design at the University of California, Los Angeles, where she honed her brilliant eye for form and color, and lived for a time in Aix-en-Provence, France, where she mastered the language so completely that even locals were forever convinced she was a native speaker.
She met her husband, airline pilot John Shenton, on a flight from Paris to Chicago in 1988 when he took his break in the open seat next to hers. They went on to date long distance, with John often flying from his home in Connecticut all the way to California just to take her out to dinner, before she joined him on the East Coast in 1989. They married in 1990.
Lisa spent her career making the world more beautiful, working for over 30 years as an interior designer, florist, and horticulturalist. She loved plants, animals, and humans alike, and after she and John retired to Pemaquid Point in 2008, she put her skills to work planning and designing weddings and other events for family and friends. In recent years, she developed a passion for beekeeping, and her loved ones can attest that she was almost as proud of “the girls” as she was of her own children.
If you knew Lisa, you know how impossible it is to sum up all the ways she left a mark on the world around her. She never missed a chance to strike up a conversation with a stranger, often making lifelong friends in just a few minutes. She was a voracious reader, known to complete multiple books in a single week, and an excellent writer to boot. She was a phenomenal cook, and loved to outdo herself with ever-more-intricate works of French patisserie and Burmese curry.
Underpinning all of that was her seemingly limitless ability to connect with and care for others. Whether she was checking in on a quiet guest at a party, adopting an injured seagull that landed in her yard, or dropping everything to help a family member, she truly believed it was her responsibility to make sure every living thing around her was doing well. And she did so with a wonderful, raunchy, self-deprecating sense of humor, which she maintained until the end.
Lisa is survived by her husband, John; her son, Will; her stepsons, Jeff and Nate; her grandchildren, Georgiabelle, Emer, Desmond, and Gable; her three siblings, David, Theo, and Kristina; and more relatives, friends, and fond acquaintances than one could possibly count.
Her family will host a memorial celebration in the spring or summer, when the weather is warm and the flowers are in bloom. In the meantime, we ask that those wishing to honor her please consider making a donation to Midcoast Humane (midcoasthumane.org), 5 Industrial Parkway, Brunswick, ME 04011, in her memory.
Arrangements are under the direction and care of the Strong-Hancock Funeral Home, 612 Main St., Damariscotta, ME 04543. Condolences and messages for her family may be expressed by visiting stronghancock.com.
