SOUTHWEST HARBOR – Hester M. Martel, 105, died April 1, 2006, at a nursing home in Bar Harbor. She was born April 6, 1900, in Ipswich, Mass., the daughter of Edward C. and Annie (Deland) Lord. She graduated from Manning High School in 1918, and from the Perry Kindergarten Normal School in Boston in 1920. She taught kindergarten in Braintree, Mass., until her marriage to Wilfred J. Martel in 1922. She devoted her life to homemaking and helping with the family dairy farm. In 1962, she moved with her husband to Hollywood, Fla., but spent summers in Southwest Harbor until 1980, when they moved to Southwest Harbor permanently. For more than 50 years she was an active member of her local grange and was an 84-year member of the American Legion Auxiliary. She was the custodian of Southwest Harbor’s Boston Post Cane at the time of her death. In 2005, she was honored to be included in the “Remember ME” ceremony held in the Maine State House by the Maine Health Care Association. Considering that the year 1900 was the last of the 19th century, she was amazed that her life spanned three centuries and the beginning of a new millennium. With her husband Wilfred, Hester found great enjoyment in following her beloved Red Sox through many seasons. Her grandchildren remember her wonderful cooking, fresh vegetables from her large garden and blueberry cakes where the blueberries never sank. In her later years she enjoyed crocheting a phenomenal number of slippers, doilies, potholders, lap robes and afghans for family, friends, neighbors, church bazaars and veterans. She was predeceased by her husband of 75 years, Wilfred; and her son, John. Surviving family members include her daughter-in-law, Margaret Martel of Southwest Harbor; three grandchildren, Ellen Corkery and her husband, Tom, of Gorham, Merle Martel of Clearwater, Fla. and Jack Martel and his wife, Mary Ellen, of Southwest Harbor; three great-grandchildren and two great-great-grandchildren, Richard Whitaker and his wife, Christina and son, Nicholas of Marblehead, Mass., Matthew Whitaker and his son, Thomas of Largo, Fla. and Jennifer Martel of Southwest Harbor; nieces, Theresa Peatfield and Katherine Pojasek of Ipswich, Mass.; nephew, William Gobeille of Wenham, Mass.; and special lifelong friends, Carl and Edna Fyrberg of Gorham. The family would like to thank the staff of the Sonogee Living Center for their loving care during her stay there. A memorial service will be held 2 p.m. Thursday, April 6, at Jordan-Fernald Funeral Home in Somesville with the Rev. Blake Brown officiating. Burial will be at the Mount Height Cemetery in Southwest Harbor. Those who wish may make gifts in Hester’s memory to the Sonagee Living Center Activity Fund, 131 Eden St., Bar Harbor, ME 04609.
HESTER M. MARTEL
