Barbara Frances Blanchard Garsoe

Barbara Frances Blanchard Garsoe July 4, 1919 March 20, 2013 Barbara Frances Blanchard Garsoe passed away on the first day of spring after a beautiful life, well-lived. She was born on Sunnyside Farm, Blanchard Road, Cumberland Center, Maine on July 4, 1919, the daughter of Anna Fox and Howard Calderwood Blanchard. She graduated from Greely Institute,Westbrook Junior College and Gorham Normal School. She was a teacher in Lewiston until she married William Joseph Garsoe in 1942, in Houston, Texas. She helped Bill run the farm and greenhouses, worked at Five Elms Nursery School, Head Start, and LLBean. Barbara lived on the farm, which has been in her family since 1820, until June 2012, a month shy of her 93rd birthday. She loved her family, her friends, and her land. From a letter she wrote in 1986: ""I wish you could see the view out of my window this morning. The blueberry bushes are bright red, the goldenrod, golden and the asters a soft blue. And behind it, all the fields are still green. The sun has just hit it all and it's beautiful. I'm lucky to be here in such a cheery place."" Barbara was a beloved, life-long member of the Cumberland Congregational Church. One member said, ""She decorated our lives for many years."" She volunteered in all aspects of town life, working on church and Lions Club suppers well into her eighties. She skied, swam, and was an accomplished sailor. Barbara and Bill spent the last five years of Bill's life sailing the Atlantic Coast in their trimaran, ""The Walloping Window Blind."" Barbara passed on her love of reading, gardening, travel, the natural world, and story-telling to her children. She was a repository of the oral history of the town of Cumberland. After Bill passed away in 1986, she continued to travel, counting England and Thailand among her favorites. But her true happiness lay in her visits with her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren, and travels with her good friends. She is predeceased in death by her husband, Billy; her sister, Estelle Blanchard Heraptha and her husband, John; her brothers-in-law Bruce Potter and Curt Gerry; and her nephew, Tommy Gerry. Barbara is survived by her children Peter Garsoe, Susan Garsoe and Kathy Garsoe Poirier; sons-in-law Marc Poirier and Tim Davis; her beloved sister, Margelia Potter; grandchildren Michelle (Garsoe) and Alan Vanvliet; Nichole (Garsoe) and Bob Fien; Monique (Garsoe) and Peter Dever; Carrie (Poirier) and Ed Greenaway; Molly Poirier; Harper Rouse-Garsoe; great-grandchildren Brian Witherspoon and Beatrice Greenaway; sister-in-law Eileen Gerry. Nieces and nephews are David Potter, Mark Potter, Judy Potter, Claudia Gerry Cusack and Dana Gerry. Her funeral is at Cumberland Congregational Church on Saturday, March 23 at 1:00.

Barbara Frances Blanchard Garsoe

July 4, 1919 - March 20, 2013

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