MILLINOCKET – Elizabeth “Betty” Gerry Corrigan, 89, passed away Saturday, Oct. 26, 2013, at St. Joseph’s Rehabilitation Center in Portland. She had been a resident there since 2010. She was born the fifth of nine children, on Sept. 19, 1924, to Bernard and Blanche (McManemon) Gerry.
She was predeceased by her husband, Paul G. Corrigan, who passed away in 2004; her sisters, Barbara, Catherine, Nora, Blanche, and Mickey; her brothers, Bernie and Jimmy; and her daughter-in-law, Janice (Miller) Corrigan. Betty is survived by her brother, Bishop Joseph Gerry OSB of Manchester, N.H.; her children, Paul Jr. of Millinocket, Bill and his wife, Mary Ellen, and their children of New Gloucester, M. Edith Springuel and her husband, Reny, and their children of Glen Echo, Md., Patt Morrison and her husband, Bill, and their children of Miami, and Mickey Carr and her husband, John, and their children of Tolland, Conn.
Betty graduated from Stearns High School in Millinocket, class of 1942. Despite her small stature, she played forward on the Stearns High School basketball team under coach Jimmy Stephens. She attended the Massachusetts General Hospital School of Nursing, where she received her nursing degree in 1945. Following graduation she worked on Baker 9 at Mass General and advanced to a head nurse position. Betty married Paul G. Corrigan of Calais in 1950. The two of them built a life around family, his optometric practice in Millinocket, and their camp on Millinocket Lake. Betty spent many a night at the lake playing cards with her children and grandchildren. She particularly excelled at winning whatever game she was playing. Betty saw beauty in the world around her. From her camp window, she enjoyed watching clouds take shape around the granite shoulders of Mount Katahdin. She listened with keen pleasure to the loons calling each other out on the lake, and never failed to notice the waves lapping the rocky shores on a summer afternoon and the wind blowing in the pines on an autumn evening. She was an enthusiastic berry picker and loved to enlist the aid of her children in gathering blueberries for her delicious pies. Betty will be fondly remembered by family and friends as a young mother raising her children at the “foot of the lake” back in the 1960s when it was a wild and inaccessible paradise.
Friends may visit with the family 6-8 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 30, at Lamson Funeral Home, 11 Tamarack St., Millinocket. A Mass of Christian burial will be celebrated 11 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 31, at St. Martin of Tours Catholic Church of Christ the Divine Mercy Parish, 19 Colby St., Millinocket. Interment will be at Millinocket Cemetery, Millinocket. Gifts in Betty’s memory may be sent to Katahdin Area Support Group, P.O. Box 374, Millinocket, ME 04462. Messages of condolence may be expressed at www.lamsonfh.com.
Elizabeth G. Corrigan
