Tru Blu Stu Weatherhead left this world peacefully June 4, at Togus Veteran’s Hospital.
Stu was born Aug. 25, 1926 in Medford, Mass., son of Esther (Hopkins) and Stuart Melville Weatherhead. He spent his summers with his grandfather, John Weatherhead in Jefferson. After his sophomore year of school, he left home, moving to Maine where he worked at Wavus Camp milking cows and in the woods.
On his 17th birthday Stu hitchhiked to Boston to join the service. Though his father was a WWI vet in the Navy, Stu joined the Marines. He shipped to Guadalcanal where the Marine 6th Division was formed specifically to invade Okinawa, which they did on April 1, 1945, an Easter Sunday. Stuart was a rifleman and a runner, delivering messages and picking up the wounded, before being wounded himself. After recovering in Guam, Stu was sent to Japan. Less than a week later, the Japanese surrendered. He stayed to retrieve POWs. Stuart received the Purple Heart, and his division, the Sixth, received the highest award given to a division, the Presidential Unit Citation.
Stu returned to the States March 17, 1946 and went to Dean Academy in Franklin, Mass. He then went on to Huntington Academy followed by Wentworth Academy in Boston where he studied masonry and earned a degree in building construction. He lived in North Reading, Mass. working as a mason contractor for 20 years. He built a cottage on Damariscotta Lake in 1959. Later he moved to Jefferson full time, building his career as a mason. Many fireplaces and chimneys can be attributed to Stu’s labor.
He joined the Masons in North Reading in 1956. He was active in the Riverside Lodge in Jefferson. He belonged to the American Legion, serving as chaplain for a time, and was a member of the DAV. Stu loved the outdoors and hunting. Other interests included raising cattle and local fairs, woodworking, making ox-bows, and anything that involved his son Michael, such as taking down trees and building stonewalls, both of which he was still doing two months ago. That’s what he was doing last April, working on his stonewall, tractor running, when his son told him he had been asked to go to Washington, D.C. on the first Honor Flight out of Maine. It turned out to be the experience of a lifetime for them both. Not one to sit still, at 86, Tru Blu Stu remained the vibrant colorful figure we all know and love.
He was predeceased by his wife, Carol in 2003, and brother, Robert Weatherhead in 2005.
Stuart is survived by daughter, Pamela Gesualdo, husband Richard, and their son, Bryan of North Reading, Mass.; son, Michael Weatherhead and wife Kim of Jefferson; granddaughter, Jessica, husband Pete Seiders, and their children, Brooke and Ashton of Bristol; granddaughter, Krystle and husband Dan Hood, and their daughter Savhana of Brunswick; nephew, Rusty Weatherhead of Jefferson; and beloved cat, KC, and dog, Sophie.
A memorial will be held at 11 a.m. on Sat., June 22 at Hall Funeral Home, 949 Main St. in Waldoboro. A graveside military service will be held at 1 p.m. on Tues., June 25 at the Veteran’s Cemetery, 162 Mt. Vernon Rd., Augusta.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to either Honor Flight New England or the Riverside Masonic Lodge in Jefferson.
Arrangements are entrusted to Hall Funeral Home and Cremation Service, Waldoboro.
