MEDFIELD, Mass. – Ardern Mace Pendleton passed away Sept. 20, 2011, after a long struggle with complicated health issues. She was born in 1935 in Medford, Ore., the daughter of Don Mace and Elizabeth Goode (Cameron), who were homesteading on the banks of the Nestucca River.
After attending 26 schools all across the country while growing up, Ardern went back to college after she had started her family, completing four years of requirements in three years and graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree in education in 1964 from the University of Maine, Orono. She later went on to continue her master’s studies at UMO in library science. Ardern taught middle school for many years in Searsport and then later in Zephyrhills, Fla. She took great pride in her teaching opportunities and her students, later retiring on Cape Cod, Mass., to be near her family. She had a passion for reading and was very active in the theater group “Ebb Tiders” in Searsport. She loved to travel and was especially fond of her time spent with her family living in Bombay, India – now Mumbai – and her visits to Italy and Greece.
Ardern is survived by her son, Don and his wife, Anne; four grandchildren, Megan, Brett, Michael and his wife, Andrea, and Kristen and her husband, Brian; as well as four great-grandchildren. She also leaves a brother, Don Mace and his family of Virginia. She was predeceased by two sons, Earle “Nick” and Michael; as well as her two former husbands, Elden Pendleton and Hazen Nickerson. She asked to be remembered to her extended families for their love and kindness through the years.
Services will be private at her request and arrangements were made by Holden, Dunn and Lawler Funeral Home, Westwood, Mass. She will be laid to rest at Mount Recluse Cemetery, Stockton Springs.