| Notes |
- Newsletter of the Haskell Family Society, Vol 3 # 3, Page 15
Mrs. Elsie (Haskell) Whitmore, 101, a former dance instructor who enjoyed herbal gardening, died Friday, April 29 at the Barron Center, Portland, Maine, only 20 days short of her 102nd birthday.
Mrs. Whitmore had lived for 68 years at her South Portland home, where she would gladly have stayed longer if live-in help could have surmounted her increasing physical difficulties. "Her mind would have gone on another 100 years," said her daughter, Jane E. Sparrow. "She was very alert, very smart up to the end."
Born in Deer Isle, Maine, daughter of Elmer and Estelle Haskell, Elsie graduated from Deer Isle High School. Before 1939 there was no bridge connecting Deer Isle to the mainland, and Elsie had difficulty finding work in the small fishing community, so at 18 years of age she moved with her mother, by then a widow, to Cambridge, Massachusetts, to find work.
In Boston Miss Elsie Haskell worked for Ginn Publishing Co. and also taught modern dance. It was there she met and married Alvah Whitmore right after World War I. "She always loved to dance," said her daughter. "She said she had three boyfriends, but daddy was the best dancer, so he won out."
Mrs. Whitmore always considered Deer Isle her home, and she went back almost every year. In the days of sailing many of the men in her family had been sea captains. A cousin, Caleb Haskell, was captain of the ship Hesper, and Mrs. Whitmore once sailed with him aboard the Hesper from Deer Isle to Boston. The Hesper and another ship, the Luther Little, sit in ruins in the Sheepscot River in Wiscasset. "She points to it and tells the story every year when we go by," said her daughter.
Mrs. Whitmore never enjoyed watching television. "I think it was because she couldn't talk back to it," said her daughter. Instead she preferred gardening in her back yard, painting, particularly sailing vessels, and reading and reciting poetry.
She was well known for her fancy garden, especially her herbs, and she frequently lectured to groups of herb lovers.
She got her first driver's license at age 70, after Mr. Whitmore died, and she enjoyed the freedom it allowed. She frequently drove to Cape Cod to visit her sister or to New York to see her daughter, and often took house bound neighbours out shopping.
Mrs. Whitmore was active in the First Congregational Church in South Portland, where she was an honorary deaconess and the last surviving charter member of the Matrons of Meetinghouse Hill. For years she worked on the church fair and was well known for her ability to make ribbons for the Christmas wreaths.
She was a past president of the Stewart P. Morrill American Legion Auxiliary and a former member of the Osewantha Garden Club.
Surviving are a son, Philip E. Whitmore of South Portland; twin daughters, Jane E. Sparrow of Falmouth and Phyllis J. Sawyer of Burnt Hills, NY; 10 grandchildren, 10 great-grandchildren and one great-great-granddaughter.
A graveside memorial service was held on May 14 at Brooklawn Memorial Park.
Elsie Whitmore's death was a personal loss to the editor, with whose orphaned father she often ate and played when they were children. A not so distant cousin, she will be fondly remembered for her open heart and ready wit, for her thoughtfulness, which at Christmas time invariably included a fresh wreath of Maine evergreens entrusted to the postal service on its way to Germany, and for her frequent and most interesting letters so full of current happenings in her life. A true friend who shared her rich life and deep faith with those around her, she will surely be missed by an untold number of friends.
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1892 - 1994 (101 years)
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