NEW HARBOR – After a long and happy life Mary Braley Sewall Alden died Dec. 22, 2004, at her home in New Harbor. She was born June 2, 1913, in Old Town, the daughter of James Wingate Sewall and Louise Belinda Gray Sewall. She graduated from Old Town High School and spent two years at the University of Maine in Orono before finishing her formal education at Radcliffe College in Cambridge, Mass. She married Richard Carter Alden of Rumford, in 1935. Together they were the parents of three daughters, Susannah A. French of Round Pond, Margaret A. Pfeffer Forbes of New Mexico and Christiana A. Stevens Poole of Newcastle. They had nine grandchildren, Charles, Amy-Louise Richard and Elizabeth Pfeffer, Kirsten, Alexander and Samuel Stevens, Jennifer A. Parlin and Aaron French; and 10 great-grandchildren. In addition to her husband, children, grandchildren, and great- grandchildren, she is survived by her sisters, Margaret Page of Caribou and Elizabeth Gary of Buzzard’s Bay, Mass.; her brother, Joseph Sewall of Castine. She was predeceased by two brothers, Daniel Stark Sewall who died in infancy, and George Tingey Sewall formerly of New York City and South Lee, Mass. The Aldens lived in Michigan and New York State for several years as well as in Maine. In Rochester, N.Y. Mrs. Alden was active in many organizations serving on the boards of the League of Women Voters of Monroe County and of New York State, the Women’s Educational and Industrial Union and the YWCA. She was director of Girls’ Work at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church and a member of the Altar Guild. Later the Aldens moved to Groveland in the Genesee Valley where she helped her husband manage Belwood a farm where they raised prize Angus cattle. After Mr. Alden’s retirement the couple moved to Bristol, where they both became active in community affairs. Mrs. Alden was a member and former president of the Fortnightly Club of Round Pond, the Willing Worker’s of New Harbor, the Lincoln County Union of Women’s Clubs and a Life Member of the Corporation of the Lincoln Home. She served six years on the Bristol School Committee and the board of School Union 74. She was active in the Republican Party. Mrs. Alden was very interested in the social and political history of Maine. Her ancestors came to Maine in the 1600’s and dispersed widely throughout the state. At Mrs. Alden’s request there will be no funeral services. If friends wish to memorialize her, Mrs. Alden hoped their gifts would be in the nature of a kind word or loving thought for a friend, a stranger or a passerby.
MARY BRALEY SEWALL ALDEN
