Arlene E Lawler

Eastport - Arlene Wardwell Lawler 102, died (day of week, date) at the Eastport Memorial Nursing Home. Mrs. Lawler was born in Middleboro, Massachusetts June 30, 1907 daughter of the late William and Mary (Wilbur) Wardwell. Arlene was born at home the second of four siblings and three half siblings. She graduated from Howard High School in West Bridgewater, Massachusetts and then continued her schooling in the field of elementary education graduating from the Bridgewater Normal School in the class of 1928. She continued her education on a part time basis receiving her bachelor’s degree in education from the University of Maine in the mid 1950s. She was the first in her family to earn a college education and financed her education working part time as a telephone operator. After finishing normal school she took a job teaching first grade in Conway, New Hampshire. The principal was Frank Lawler, a native of Eastport, Maine. They married March 25, 1931 in Cochesett, Massachusetts. In 2006 they celebrated their 75th wedding anniversary while living together at the Eastport Memorial Nursing Home. Arlene and Frank were steadfast, loving companions who always kept each other in their hearts and thoughts. Arlene worked as an elementary teacher in New England wherever they lived all of her career. In the early days of her career it was not uncommon for her to have to obtain special permission from the school board as married woman were normally not allowed to teach. She returned with Frank to Eastport on many occasions and use to tell stories of the Roosevelt’s coming to Eastport to shop in the summer time from Campobello where they had their summer home. She enjoyed entertaining friends and family and lived a wholesome Christian life. She departs us to join her husband whom she has missed very much. She was a loving wife, mother, daughter and grandmother who will be missed by those she leaves. May God hold their spirits gently in his hands along with those who have made this journey before her. Surviving are her two sons Frank Dale Lawler and his wife Edith of Indiana and James Delbert Lawler and his wife Joanne of North Carolina; six grand children Jennifer Windsor and husband Jack, Timothy Lawler and wife Lori, James “Alex” Lawler, Patricia Doggendorf and husband Bill, Nancy Lawler and husband Joe Scanlon, and Mill Lawler and wife Laura; and three great grand children Jude, Ivan, and Chase.


Cemetery:
Hillside Cemetery
High Street
Eastport, ME 04631 (map/driving directions)



Services:
10:30AM at Graveside on Monday, March 8th, 2010