PORTLAND and BANGOR – Yvonne Jeanne (Sherbino) Bremner, 88, beloved wife and mother, died peacefully April 6, 2011, at Birchwoods Assisted Living facility, Portland. She was born Feb. 19, 1923, in Nora Springs, Iowa, the youngest of five children.
She graduated from Nora Springs High School, Class of 1941. After graduation, she attended teachers college and taught for two years in a country schoolhouse near her hometown. In her mid-20s, she was offered “a life beyond your wildest dreams” by Stuart D. Bremner. She believed him and they wed June 12, 1948. With Stuart’s re-enlistment in the Air Force in the 1950s, Yvonne did indeed live a life far beyond the cornfields of Iowa. Military assignments took them to Japan, Nebraska, Turkey, Maine and Virginia. In 1969, after Stuart’s retirement from the military, they moved to Bangor, where 118 Leighton St. became their first and only purchased home, after years of living in military housing. Her home on Leighton Street became Yvonne’s haven and the place she settled her heart’s activities until her move to Portland in 2007. Throughout the military traveling years, Yvonne managed to keep track of five children while packing and unpacking homes that were always kept spic and span. She volunteered for her children’s PTAs, sang in base chapel choirs, cooked the best casseroles you could find anywhere in the world, and even made a solo trip to Egypt while the family was stationed in Turkey. Once settled in Bangor Yvonne also continued her participation as a member of PEO, to which she had been invited in the late 1950s. She served for many years on the board of King’s Daughters Christian Boarding Home for Women, Ohio Street, Bangor. While traveling was indeed a part of Yvonne’s “living a life beyond her wildest dreams,” the true north of her dreams was found in loving and caring for her husband, five children and their families. Her compass – her guide for living – was set in her childhood roots of rural Iowa: the simplicities of a hot meal on the table for family and friends; a morning cup of coffee or a pot of afternoon tea to share in conversation; fresh line-dried laundry to clothe her family; quiet days enjoyed on her porch or tending her small yard at 118 Leighton St. and chatting with her neighbors; and her completion of spirit whenever her family arrived to visit. Yvonne was gentle, stoic and had a quick wit and loving spirit. She will be remembered with gratitude and forever missed by those who loved her.
Yvonne was predeceased by her husband of 48 years, Stuart Douglas Bremner; her parents, George W. and Florence (Smith) Sherbino; brothers, Vercyl and Ray; and sisters, Nora and Dottie. She is survived by her five children: son, Steven Bremner and his wife, Susan, of Bath; and daughters, Renee Newman and husband, Tom, of Portland, Denise Stevens and husband, Art, of North Yarmouth, Michele Voss and husband, Bill, of Alton, N.H., and Charmaine Jones and husband, Brian, of San Antonio; 16 grandchildren and 16 great-grandchildren.
Relatives and friends are invited to attend a time of visitation 4-6 p.m. Saturday, April 9, at Jones, Rich & Hutchins Funeral Home, 199 Woodford St., Portland, where a service of celebration will be held 1 p.m. Sunday, April 10. Private Interment services will be at Maine Veterans Cemetery at a later date. Those who wish to remember Yvonne in a special way may make gifts in her memory to Habitat for Humanity of Greater Portland, P.O. Box 10505, Portland, ME 04104. For additional information and to sign Yvonne’s guest book, please visit
www.jonesrichandhutchins.com.