Alice Marion Otis

Eastport - On a cold, sunny afternoon with a brisk northwest wind blowing out over the bay, Alice took her leave of us. She had been home with us for a week, cats on her bed, the smell of baking bread in the air, and her family around her. It was a gift and a blessing to have her with us for those final days. Her life was filled with love, beauty and friends. Born in Eastport on July 3, 1912, the third child of Charles E. Brown and Alice (Thompson) Brown of Eastport, she moved to a log cabin on Boyden Lake with her parents and three siblings, where she grew up surrounded by gardens, creativity and the beauty of the woods and lake. Her death at 94 on February 9, 2007, was quiet and peaceful. When she was 20, after studying at the Maine School of Commerce, Alice moved to NYC, where she worked in the Botany Dept. of Columbia University for 10 years before marrying her husband Ralph and moving out to Long Island to raise her family. She returned to Maine each summer and in 1976, moved home for good to Hilltop, the old Dan Hibbard house, overlooking the Little River in Perry. In 1996, Ralph and Alice and her sister, Ruth Brown, moved to their daughter’s house in Eastport. Alice and Ruth were not only sisters, but the best of friends throughout their lives. As children, they shared farm chores and enjoyed filling their pockets with “mail box” cookies when they made the daily trek to get the mail. In summer they often had “blueberry patch” talks, confiding and gossiping while picking berries in the warm meadows above the lake. In the winter they ice skated, ice boated and loved to snowshoe across the lake, vying with each other and their brothers to see who could walk the straightest line. Alice often went fishing with her brother, Tom, at Suddy’s Lake in Charlotte. The Commons Eastport came into being with Alice as one of the partners. She was delighted to be a part of the rebirth of Eastport, where her father was a photographer and boat builder in the late 1800’s. Her husband, Ralph L. Otis, her sister, Ruth L. Brown and her brothers, Thomas P. Brown and Charles E. Brown Jr. have broken trail for her. Carrying on in her spirit are her beloved daughters, Nancy Asante and Meg McGarvey; her grandchildren, Asiedua Asante, Larkin McGarvey and Joel McGarvey; her niece, Ruth Moran and her great nieces and nephews, Dianna Darling, George Moran, Mark Moran, Melissa Stearns and Stephanie Perkins, along with many cousins and good friends. People wishing to honor Alice’s life and her interest in nature and education may make a contribution to the Jim Pottle Outdoor Classroom Fund, sent to the Bangor Savings Bank, P.O. Box 250, Eastport, ME 04631. A memorial celebration will be held this spring. Arrangements by Mays Funeral Home – Flagg Chapel, Eastport.


Memorials:
Jim Pottle Outdoor Classroom Fund, sent to the Bangor Savings Bank, P.O. Box 250, Eastport, ME 04631