OAKLAND – Althea G. Jewett passed from this earthly life on her father, Donald’s birthday July 21, 2012, at Lakewood Nursing Home, where she had resided for the last year and a half. Althea Gertrude Joyce Jewett was born June 30, 1924, at home in Atlantic, Swans Island.
After attending school on the island until grade eight, her parents, Donald and Lina (Gordon) Joyce, moved to Rockport, so she could go to high school there, as there was no high school on Swans Island. While living in Rockport her father, Donald, named two of his fishing draggers after Althea -Althea Joyce and Althea J. She graduated from Rockport High School and then attended Farmington Normal School, graduating in 1946. In 1948, Althea married Theodore Jewett and moved to Oakland, where she had lived ever since. While in Oakland Althea taught home economics at the high school, and later seventh and then fourth grade at Tapley School. She retired from teaching in 1982. She was battling all the difficulties of growing older since Thanksgiving 2010, but has always kept her sense of humor. Althea has always been a determined person and a fighter and worked hard to overcome much difficulty in her life. She remains one of the longest-lived persons to have received and recovered from the Whipple surgical procedure, which she had done more than 18 years ago.
Althea leaves behind a daughter, Carol J. Brewster and husband, Elbert Brewster, of Oakland, and their two children, Andrea and husband, and Donald of Portland, Ore.; and son, Alan Jewett of Hudson. She is also survived by her cousin, Stephen Joyce and wife, Barbara, of Wake Forest, N.C. Althea was a very active member of Oakland United Baptist Church and will miss her friends, Pearle Estes and Edith Cunningham. Special thanks are offered by Althea’s family to the Evergreen Unit at the Woodlands, and the folks who “saved her life” at Lakewood. Thanks are also extended to her good neighbor, Glen Joseph and her church friends who offered her their help and support.
Friends are invited to visit 6-8 p.m. Friday, July 27, at Wheeler Funeral Home, 26 Church St., Oakland. Persons attending her funeral 1 p.m. Saturday, July 28, at Oakland United Baptist Church are asked to bring a stuffed animal to place around her casket. They will later be donated to Oakland Police Station and Waterville Homeless Shelter. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Oakland Baptist Church Scholarship Fund or Waterville Humane Society.