Obituary of Faith Graves Sawyer

SEARSPORT Faith Graves Sawyer, 94, died November 18 2009, at the Waldo Country Hospital in Belfast, Maine after a long illness. Mrs. Sawyer was born February 20, 1915 in Gorham, Maine to Frederick and Annie Graves. She graduated from Gorham High School and then attended Gorham Normal School. She taught school in Augusta and Gorham, Maine serving as Principle of the Gorham Middle School during the 1970’s. She lived in Gorham after her retirement until moving to New Hampshire in 1992. She lived in the Pleasant View Retirement Community until 2006 when she returned to Searsport, Maine to live with her youngest daughter. Her family wrote: “Faith lived a life full of adventure, resilience and discovery. She looked and acted fifteen years younger than her age until the very end of her life. In her eighties she traveled to Germany and Ireland. At age 90, she was still the top-scoring bowler on her team, head of the assisted living community’s welcoming committee, and a regular attendee at adult education courses. Her favorite life story told about sneaking onto the parade ground at Fort Hood with her husband in 1944 to drive a tank destroyer in the moonlight.” Mrs. Sawyer was predeceased by her husband, Richard F. Sawyer, and her two brothers, Philip and John Graves – all of Gorham, Maine. She is survived by her daughters, Penelope F. Moore and Melinda J. Reed; grandchildren, John, Patrick and Edwin Moore and Eric Regnell; 2 ½ great-grandchildren; and The Windbuyers. For many years, she was a communicant of Saint Anne’s Catholic Church in Gorham, Maine. Her wishes were to forego a funeral in lieu of a good old-fashioned Irish wake to be held in the Summer. Donations can be made to the Alzheimer’s Association. (http://www.alz.org/index.asp).