BROOKSVILLE – Grace Condon (Ladd) Dillon, 89, died July
23, 2012, at a Blue Hill hospital after a brief illness. She was born March 28, 1923, in Brooksville, to Beatrice (Condon) and Crosby Ladd.
She was educated in the schools of Brooksville and South Blue Hill, where her aunts were schoolteachers, and graduated from Brooksville High School and Northern Conservatory of Music, Bangor. She taught music for two years in Greenville, one year in Madison, and then returned to school at the University of Maine, receiving her Bachelor of Science degree in music education in 1948. Grace then moved to the Washington, D.C., area where two of her aunts were living. She taught school in Prince George’s County, Maryland, for three years before working at the Central Intelligence Agency for nine years. In 1961 she met her future husband, Wayne J. Dillon, in Washington, and they were married six weeks later. She and Wayne had many adventures throughout their devoted marriage until his death in 2009. They lived and studied Spanish in Mexico and Arizona, and then lived 12 years in and around Fairbanks, Alaska, where Grace worked for Fairbanks Police Department. Retiring in 1978 to Brooksville, Grace took up the work of the community and her family, caring for her aging aunts and several cousins, as well as, finally, her husband. She was a member of Brooksville United Methodist Church, the WSCS and Brooksville Historical Society, as well as a loyal and eager participant in the Thursday lunches at Meals for Me, now Community Cafe, Brooksville. She and her husband were volunteers for Literacy Volunteers, Bangor, where they forged strong bonds with several of their students in English and Spanish. If Grace ever met anyone, they became a lifelong
friend, and she never forgot a birthday, a graduation, a wedding or a christening.
Grace was predeceased by her parents; her brothers, Edmund Ladd and wife, Doris, and John Ladd and wife, Katherine (Ladd) Martin; as well as her 13 aunts and uncles of Condons-on-the-Hill; and her husband. She is survived by seven nieces and nephews, Douglas Ladd, Bradley Ladd, Richard Ladd and Dolores Ladd Robertson, Basil Ladd, Sharon Ladd Higgins and Brenda Ladd Sprague; as well as her husband’s many nieces and nephews; and three special cousins, Elizabeth Senter, Darlene Carlson and Thelma Astbury. She leaves behind many devoted and loyal friends, family and cousins.
A memorial service for Grace will be held 3 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 26, at South Brooksville Methodist Church with the Rev. David Vandiver officiating. Those wishing to remember Grace may consider making a contribution to Brooksville United Methodist Church, care of Dwight Eaton, 12 Eaton Lane, Brooksville, ME 04617. Condolences may be expressed at
www.jordanfernald.com.