BANGOR – Barbara Webster McRea of Bangor, a veteran of World War II who raised seven children and became a registered nurse at age 56, died Tuesday, March 17, 2009, after a brief illness. She was 92. She was born Barbara Louise Webster on Dec. 5, 1916, in Dorchester, Mass., the daughter of Lloyd Ellis Webster and Mabel Dolloff Webster. She was educated in the Boston area and played the trumpet in the Woburn High School marching band. She studied nursing at a hospital in Somerville, Mass., before entering the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps on Feb. 11, 1943. She spent time in Texas and was assigned to Gowen Field in Idaho before being posted to Hickam Field in Hawaii, where she drove trucks and buses and regularly blew taps and reveille as a WAAC bugler. It was in Hawaii that she met her future husband, Robert H. McRea, who served in the South Pacific during the war and later worked in the trucking business. After marrying in Hawaii, the McReas moved in 1945 to Kittery, the first of many residences they would have as they raised a family. They lived in Pepperell, Mass.; in Vinalhaven, where the Webster family had built a home in the late 19th century; in Rock Falls, Ill.; and in Paris Crossing, Ind., before settling in Florissant, Mo., where they lived during the late 1950s and early 1960s. On numerous occasions during those years, Mrs. McRea drove her children to Maine for summer vacations at the family homestead on Vinalhaven. The McReas lived again in Vinalhaven, as well as Rockland and Cushing, before moving in 1967 to Warren, where they resided for many years in a house at the end of Clement Point Road along the St. George River. During this time Mrs. McRea became a licensed practical nurse at St. Joseph Hospital in Bangor. In 1973 she graduated from the University of Maine at Augusta as a registered nurse and worked for many years in the maternity ward at Augusta General Hospital. Mrs. McRea was devoted to her family. In the early 1990s she worked for several months at the Hope House, a counseling facility in Bangor for alcoholic men, to provide financial assistance to her daughter, Linda, who was a student at the University of Maine. “We are grateful to Nana for all of her sacrifices during a challenging time for our family,” said her grandson Corey Michaud. She enjoyed family activities, including a 1993 sailing vacation in the British Virgin Islands with her daughter, her son Robert and several grandchildren. Mrs. McRea was an avid reader and writer, and a fan of the Camden poet Edna St. Vincent Millay. During World War II she penned several patriotic and lyric poems, some of which were published in newspapers back home. Her poems were privately printed for the family in 2004. In the early part of this decade Mrs. McRea moved to Orono to live with her daughter and son-in-law, Timothy Allen. In 2003 they moved to a house on Lincoln Street in Bangor, where Mrs. McRea lived until she became ill in late January. She is survived by two sons, John W. McRea of Warren and Thomas W. McRea of Vinalhaven; nine grandchildren; 18 great-grandchildren; and several nieces and nephews. She was predeceased by her parents; four sons, Richard J. McRea, Timothy L. McRea, Robert H. McRea Jr. and Daniel P. McRea; her daughter, Linda M. McRea; her brothers, William Webster and Lloyd E. Webster Jr.; her sister, Jean Seawell; and a grandson, Nathan W. Michaud. The family plans to hold funeral and burial services in August on Vinalhaven. Those wishing to honor Mrs. McRea’s memory may make a donation to the Vinalhaven Historical Society, P.O. Box 339, 41 High St., Vinalhaven, ME 04863.
BARBARA WEBSTER MCREA
