Mary Ann Beinecke, 87, of Waldoboro, formerly of Port Clyde, Williamstown, Mass., and Nantucket, died peacefully on Nov. 24.
She was born in Manitowoc, Wis. on March 5, 1927, daughter of Julius E. and Olive (Blumenstein) Hamachek. After high school in Manitowoc, she attended UCLA and Connecticut College, studying art and botany, leaving college in 1947 to marry Herbert H. Hinrichs of Staten Island, a malt and hops broker. They lived in Summit and Short Hills, N.J. and had four children, Richard, Julie Ann, Robert and Louisa.
After divorce in 1959, she married Walter Beinecke Jr. of Short Hills in 1960 and they moved to Rye, N.Y. and then New York City, as well as having a summer and a winter home on Nantucket. Her fifth child, Walter Beinecke III was born in 1963.
Mary Ann was active with the Nantucket Historical Trust in efforts to revitalize the island’s economy while preserving its heritage. Her contribution was in encouraging excellence in craft. Around 1962, she established Nantucket Looms, with manager Andy Oates, training a cadre of islanders in hand weaving and embroidery to produce the fine textiles used in the restoration of the historic Jared Coffin House. The Looms became a showplace for many high-quality crafts produced on-island. It was expanded into The Cloth Company of Nantucket with a store on Madison Ave. in New York, and had many important customers and commissions. The Looms was later sold to Andy Oates and Bill Euler.
Mary Ann also was the founder and director of The Nantucket School of Needlery on India Street, for which she created a correspondence course managed by her staff of embroidery teachers trained by the finest embroiderers from many countries. She wrote Basic Needlery Stitches on Mesh Fabric, published by Dover, and assembled an important collection of rare books on Textiles and Decorative Arts which is now at the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Mass.
The family moved from New York City to Williamstown, Mass., and Mary Ann became very active in the redevelopment of nearby North Adams, restoring several mill buildings and districts where MassMOCA is now, and founding a guild system for crafts. She also was an advisor on the arts to Governor Dukakis and Senator Kennedy, while she continued the School of Needlery and her weaving business of Textile Studios. Full of curiosity about the world, she researched “vegetal” dying of yarn by boiling almost every plant in the Berkshires with different mordents to discover what colors they produced.
At the end of her second marriage, in 1986 she moved herself and her business to mid-coast Maine, establishing a new textile company, Newavom, in a former chicken barn, where luxury products were made and sold and where she developed a line of yarns for weaving, knitting, and embroidery with 99 colors. Later, she moved to Waldoboro where she continued her business as EPIC/ Excellent Production in Craft.
MAB, as she liked to be called, loved classical guitar, folk, and jazz music; knitting, gardening, and mah jongg; tennis, golf, skiing and riding when young; and the cooking of her Wisconsin German and Czech heritage. She explored many kinds of spiritual paths, was passionate about the environment, world and local politics, the importance of art of all kinds, and especially about color. Among many organizations, she was a member of American Farmland Trust, the Grange, Maine Organic Farming & Gardening Association, the Island Institute, and a lifetime member of the Nantucket Historical Association.
Affectionately known as Mims, Mary Ann happily enjoyed the presence of many of her family this fall at the wedding of her oldest grandchild.
Mary Ann is survived by her sons, Richard Beinecke of Arlington. Mass., Robert Hinrichs of Waldoboro, and Walter Beinecke and wife Gina of Manchester-By-The-Sea; daughters, Julie Stackpole and husband Renny of Thomaston, and Louisa Hamachek of Eugene, Ore.; grandchildren, Jennifer Stackpole Palmer and husband Charlie, Lorena Stackpole, Tilly Hamachek, Jat Hamachek, Emily Beinecke, Katrina Beinecke, Evan Beinecke, and Hannah Beinecke; and new great-granddaughter, Muriel.
A celebration of her life will be held at a later date in the spring.
Contributions in her memory may be made to Doctors Without Borders – www.doctorswithoutborders.org; Medomak Valley Land Trust, 25 Friendship Rd., Waldoboro, ME 04572; or the charity of your choice.
You are invited to share your condolences, and memories with the family, please visit their book of memories at www.hallfuneralhomes.com.
Hall’s of Thomaston, 78 Main St., Thomaston, is caring for the family.
