Olive McKay Wright, 97, of Pemaquid Harbor, passed away peacefully in her own home on Jan. 29. She was born on Oct. 30, 1913, in Edgecomb to Earnest McKay and Pearl Philbrick. She grew up Olive Hilda McKay on McKay Road in an archetypal farm family, treasuring the simple pleasures of life. She helped rear the younger siblings and pulled her weight with chores on the farm.
She attended grammar school in a little one-room schoolhouse and graduated from Lincoln Academy in the class of 1931. She attended St. Andrew’s Hospital school for nurses from July 16, 1934 to 1936, and graduated with her highest marks in Obstetrics at 100 percent according to the letter dated July 19, 1937 by Sup’t Lillian Lawrence.
Olive worked at St. Andrew’s and the hospital in Damariscotta for several years. She also cared for, and helped rear, several children on Pemaquid Harbor Road, where she lived for over 70 years, and was the Post Mistress in Pemaquid Harbor for 27 years at her retirement. She kept the books for the Harrington Cemetery until the age of 92 years old.
Olive led a full, fun and interesting life. One of her favorite things to do was to put on a spread of her favorite food – lobster for the family and friends. She loved to travel and she lived to jet off and catch up with her many nieces and nephews. Her favorite trips, above all, were to Hawaii to visit Rhonda Anne and Tonia Holly where she loved to walk the beaches and go to work with Rhonda Anne at Honolulu Publishing on the Island of Oahu…she was an adventurer at heart.
She loved hunting, skeet shooting and fishing with her husband, Howard. She also loved boating, horses and gardening. She was a member of the Grange for 83 years since the age of 15.
She was predeceased by her first husband, Harland Geyer, whom she married in 1944 until his passing in 1956; second husband, Howard R. Wright, whom she married in 1959 until his death in 1974; sisters, Margaret Blake and Edith Lewis; and brothers, Joseph Earnest McKay, Thomas McKay, and Alfred S. McKay.
She is survived by her sisters-in-law, Nellie McKay of Kittery and Geneva McKay of Edgecomb; nieces, Rhonda Anne of Bradenton, Fla., Tonia Holly of Texas and Beth Anne of Port Charlotte, Fla.; nephews, Alfred McKay of Waldoboro, Mike McKay, Don McKay and John Blake, all of Edgecomb; stepsons, H. Chester Wright and wife Betty Jean of Nobleboro and Gary Wright and wife Donna of Tennessee; nephews and nieces, Gordon McKay, Natalie Blake, Judy Ashmore, Robert McKay, Reginald McKay, Stevie McKay and Carol Sue, all of Kittery, Jeanette Dixon of York County, Fredric Lewis and Alan Lewis, both of Barters Island, Gene Lewis of Westbrook, and Sandra Hartley of Memphis, Tenn.; many other nephews and nieces in the Geyer family; many life-long friends and neighbors, including Thereas Richards, Eleanor Lewis, Gerry Mahan, Walt and Nancy Johansson, Helen Mcone, David and Betty Kolodin, and Bethiah Callahan; as well as many grange members throughout the state.
In lieu of flowers, please send donations to support the Grange in Olive’s memory to Ronald Dolloff, PO Box 294, Waldoboro, ME 04572.
Graveside service and celebration of her life will be held at the Harrington Cemetery in the summer of 2011.
Condolences, and messages for the family, may be expressed by visiting www.StrongHancock.com.
