OXBOW PLANTATION – Our Mother, Charlotte “Mickey” (Carney) Grass, 80, died peacefully Feb. 8, 2005, at home surrounded by her loving family. Mom was born July 30, 1924, on Sterling Ridge in Masardis, the daughter of George William and Estella Blanche (Hawkes) Carney. Mom was the youngest of seven children and always said she would be a baby until the day she died. Many stories have been told about her younger years…like how she and her sister, Bea, were the “boys” on the farm as the brothers were sickly and unable to help. They worked in the fields and in the barn with “PaPa” while the other sisters worked in the house with “MaMa.” When school was in, they walked eight miles each day. Years later when the buses started running, it was called 10 miles. She used to get a nickel a day for a candy bar and would put it in the nickelodeon at Greenlaw’s Store and dance her lunch hour. At 17, Mom met the love of her life, Brian D. Grass, from OxBow. During World War II, when Dad was sent overseas, Mom went to Bridgeport, Conn., and worked at General Electric making dynamos for airplane engines. Upon his return, they wed on July 23, 1944. The Navy took them to San Diego. While there, Mom was a first class carpenter repairing ailerons for airplanes. When they returned to Maine, they resided in Brewer for a few years, had their two oldest children, Raymond and Judy, and then moved back to OxBow in 1954 and had two more boys, Dale and Brent. Mom would go picking potatoes taking all of us with her. We would start picking ourselves with little baskets that would only hold a potato or two. The baby at the time would be sleeping in a potato barrel lying on its side. In 1963, work took them back to Brewer Lake in Orrington. Until Brent was old enough to attend school full time, Mom took care of four other local children always treating them like her own. Our home was always filled with lots of love and good times. She loved holidays and decorated for all of them. The Halloween costumes she used to get dressed up in were something else again. She loved fooling people and went trick or treating until just a few years ago. At Christmas, Mom was the biggest kid of all. We got her a new dog, KiKi, this year for Christmas…what joy she brought her. She loved country music and played the guitar and harmonica and taught the boys how to play too! Raymond had a band that would practice in the house until she got home from work. Mom loved “kicking up her heels.” She and Dad would glide over the dance floor. Mom worked for Viner Shoe Co., in Bangor until Dad’s health failed, when she cared for him until his death in 1980. They moved back to OxBow in 1979 and helped build the log home there. She worked taking care of a local elderly lady; and, also at the OxBow Lodge for Leonard and Phyllis Hutchins. She helped Judy with the OxBow General Store and also Steven and Judy with OxBow Wreaths. Mom was a collector of dishes and teddy bears and loved yard sales. She was an avid Bingo player, enjoyed bowling, snowmobiling, berry picking, card playing…you name it. Mom loved life. She loved hunting and fishing. There wasn’t a rock where a fish could hide. She and her friends, Jeanette Currier, Myrtle Sperry, and Artie Sprague traveled many miles through the woods looking for new fish hole. Mom moved to Academy Park in Presque Isle in 1988. She was near her sisters, friends, and Bingo halls. After her last open-heart surgery in 2002, she moved back with her daughter and son-in-law, Judy and Steven Sherman in OxBow. She loved playing cards, especially beating us all in a good game of cribbage. She taught us all to play but apparently left out a few winning secrets. Company was an every day event. Aunt Bea would come home every summer and the stories they told. It was just like a history lesson of the good ole days. Especially when they were visited by Rodney and Frances Weeks of Sterling Ridge with whom they grew up. One of her favorite “tests” to give was to recite the “Counties of Maine.” Charlotte “Mickey” is survived by her four children; Raymond and his friend, Debbie Morrison, of Phoenix, Ariz., Judy and her husband, Steven Sherman of OxBow, Dale and his friend, Donna Provencher, of OxBow, Brent and his fianc?e, Ellen Thompson of Presque Isle; five grandchildren, Carey Besse of Bangor, Craig Grass of Biddeford, Douglas, Alicia, and Eric Grass of Eddington; one great-grandchild, Keagan “Little Charlie” Grass of Eddington; her very special sister, Beatrice Verner of Burlington, Vt.; many nieces and nephews especially her “favorite nephew,” Rollie DeMerchant of Natick, Mass. Mom will be sadly missed by all who knew her. She was predeceased by her husband, Brian; brothers, Henry and George Sheldon; sisters, Clarissa Hull, Olive Clark and Phyllis DeMerchant. Thank you to her many friends especially Rita Sherman, Lester Junkins and Kay Currier; also to Visiting Nurses and Hospice of Aroostook, for all you did for Mom. At Mom’s request, there will be no services at this time. A graveside committal service will be held in the spring at the Masardis Municipal Cemetery at a time to be announced. Arrangements by Stimson-Ouellette Funeral Home, 114 Exchange St., Ashland. Those who wish may donate to Visiting Nurses of Aroostook, 2 Water St., Suite 1, Houlton, ME 04730, for the purchase of a Pulse Oximeter.
CHARLOTTE ‘MICKEY’ GRASS
