HENRIETTA PAGE CRANE

ROCKLAND – Henrietta Page Crane, 92, died Tuesday, March 1, 2005, at Knox Center for Long Term Care. Born in Skowhegan, Jan. 1, 1913, she was the second of five children of Blin W. and Edith Nay Page. She was educated in area schools, graduating from Skowhegan High School as valedictorian, Class of 1931. She continued her education at Wellesley College in Massachusetts, graduating in 1935. After teaching Latin at Cape Elizabeth High School for two years, she returned to Skowhegan, and married Kennedy Crane Jr. in July, 1938. She moved to Glen Cove with her family in 1951, where they resided at Tillson Farm for 17 years, and where she continued teaching in a tutorial capacity. In the late 60’s, having raised her children, Henrietta moved to Shaw Avenue in Rockland, remaining a resident of Rockland for the rest of her life. Always interested in education, healthcare, and politics, she enjoyed supporting various organizations involved in those efforts. In education, she served on the Maine Planning Committee for the White House Conference on Education, and was appointed by Governor Edmund Muskie to the first Governor’s Advisory Committee on Education, serving on its executive committee, and was an advisor to the Education Panel of the Legislative Research Committee. Additionally, she was a chairperson for the Rockland PTA, and a chairperson for the Wellesley College Development Fund for Maine in the 1950’s. In health-care, she served as a trustee for the Knox Hospital for 17 years, and was a member of the Ladies Hospital Auxiliary. She was a member of the Knox Hospital Blue Ribbon Panel, instrumental in the commissioning of the new Knox Center, and went on to hold the position of honorary trustee of the Penobscot Bay Medical Center. She was director of the Mid-Coast Mental Health Clinic, and a founder of the Mid-Coast Home Health Association, serving on its board for 13 years. Also, she was director of the Kno-Wal-Lin Community Health Association, was a member of the House of Delegates for the Pine Tree Society for Crippled Children and Adults, and served on the State Board of Community Health Associations. Politically, she worked through the committee structure of the Republican Party from bottom to top, starting in Rockport and culminating in her being twice elected to the position of National Committeewoman to the Republican National Committee for the State of Maine, serving in that capacity from 1972 through 1980. She attended several Republican National Conventions, and was described as the “Grand dame of the Republican Party, active from the 1950’s until the 1980’s, serving in various organizational capacities including National Committeewoman.” (An Insider’s Guide to Maine Politics by Christian P. Potholm.) She was a member of the Maine delegation to the International Women’s Year Conference in Houston, Texas, in 1977. She took pleasure in maintaining contact with her Wellesley classmates, was a longtime member of the Rockland Congregational Church, and served as a board member on the Girl Scout Councils in both the Skowhegan and Rockland areas. Mrs. Page Crane was predeceased by one son, Edward Page Crane; one brother, Edward Page; and three sisters, Gertrude Page, Margaret Page and Elizabeth Page Sealey. She is survived by two sons and a daughter, Kennedy Crane III and his wife, Susan, of Owls Head, Tobey C. Crane and his wife, Candice, of Ketchum, Idaho, and Trudy Page Crane of Rockland; four grandchildren, Jonathan Crane and his wife, Erica, of Warren, Galen Crane and his wife, Cali Brooks, of Lake Placid, N.Y., Kimberly Housman of Gaithersburg, Md., and Anthony Crane and his wife, Jennifer, of Ashland, Ore.; five great-grandchildren, Louisa, Isabel and True Crane of Warren, and Alexandra and Jessica Crane of Ashland, Ore.; two nieces, Mary Flemming Brown of South Kent, Conn., and Deborah Sealey of Rockland; and one nephew, Neil Flemming of Milford, Mass. A summer memorial service will be announced at a later date. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to the Knox Alzheimer’s Program, care of Northeast Health, 22 White St., Rockland, ME 04841.