Louise Abbot, born Roberta Louise Fisher on Feb. 27, 1928, died peacefully in her sleep on July 27 at Edgewood retirement community in North Andover, Mass. She was 96 years old. She survived her husband, David Abbot; and her previous husband, R. Andrew Fletcher Jr., with whom she raised her four children, Andy III, Bob, Phebe, and Henry. She had recently lost her son, Bob, with whom she was close, in January of this year. She was a devoted mother who wanted the best for each of us.
Andy, Phebe, and Henry welcome all who knew her, to bid her farewell and share Louise stories with us in the dining hall at Edgewood on Aug. 24. There will be a memorial service ceremony beginning at 11 a.m. with a luncheon reception to follow. Mum will be buried beside David at a private gathering at 3 p.m. in the cemetery of the South Church in Andover.
Louise was raised in Bryn Mawr, Pa. She attended Shipley School for 12 years. She and several of her classmates (“the four F’s”) kept close ties their whole lives. She loved all her friends in Andover and beyond, and still was making new ones to the end. She graduated from Radcliffe in 1949, president of her class and was an active alumna. She was a lifelong learner with a photographic memory and an expansive imagination – she had innumerable poems learned by heart. She drew us all in with her love of things to do, exploring history and New England, poetry, plants, and bird life, butterflies, and minerals.
Raising her young children in Westford (Nabnasset) next to the H.E. Fletcher Co. granite quarry, she kept sheep, pigs, and bees, tended vegetable gardens, learned to stencil furniture, made natural dyes for hooking wool rugs, shared skating and swimming at the town ponds, and played in local tennis tournaments.
She was a dedicated volunteer: a Cub Scouts and brownies leader, working with returning wounded vets at Ft. Devons, teaching recent immigrants English in Lawrence, and as a docent at the Peabody museum.
After the family moved to the center of Westford, she became an avid member of the garden club, studied the Shaker’s, especially their gardens, and became a certified landscape designer. Later, living in Harvard and Still River, she joined the League of Women Voters, and discovered that we could tap our non-sugar maple trees in the spring.
Louise’s love and curiosity about nature and history stemmed from Maine summers at her family’s remote 100-plus-year-old fishing camp, Camp Bellevue near the Canadian border, first and foremost from her oldest friend, Junior Poor, a certified Maine Guide, and naturalist in his own right. We climbed many mountains with Mum, and skied at Wildcat Mountain near North Conway, N.H. She shot skeet, and hunted, but mostly fed birds and enjoyed watching them.
She overcame cancer three times, though it didn’t stop her from dating again after her divorce. She met the love of her life, David Abbot, a businessman, sailor, and a true gentleman. They shared many good times together with family and friends at their beloved schoolhouse, which they bought and refurbished on Lake Damariscotta in Nobleboro. She loved old houses. With each one she lived in, she honored its character, turning it into a welcoming home.
She and David sailed for many years along the New England coast out of Rockport, Mass. and Round Pond. In Rockport, Mum put her heart into learning to paint. She won an early award in Rockport. In Damariscotta, she joined a group of plein air painters, selling numerous paintings. Less known, was her work with tole tray painting, which she regularly did with “the tray ladies.” Extended family members received gifts of exquisitely painted tin trays, maple syrup buckets converted into wastebaskets, wood storage bins, and the like at their weddings or other special occasions over the years.
She was a board member of the historic Jonathan Fisher House Trust in Blue Hill, the home of her famous ancestor from whom it derives its name. He was the first pastor of that community, a remarkable painter, scholar, furniture maker, farmer, and inventor, a truly remarkable Renaissance man, in whose footsteps she so ably followed. She helped the trust to establish an orchard dedicated to growing fruit trees from ancient seeds preserved from the time of her illustrious 18th-century ancestor.
She was an indomitable one, and will be sorely missed. In her spirit, courage, and example there is so very much to celebrate!
In gratitude – Andy, Phebe, and Henry Fletcher, and friends.
