Mary Edna Freeman Had Long Career in Nursing

Mary Edna (Doucette) Freeman of Bingham, Me., formerly of Edgartown, died on Saturday, Sept. 13, at the Redington-Fairview General Hospital in Skowhegan, Me. She was 94.

She was born August 3, 1909 in Revere, the daughter of Capt. Louis A. and Mary Jane (Upton) Doucette. Her father and Capt. Levi Jackson of Martha's Vineyard were the first two fishermen to receive the Carnegie Medal for heroism in the rescue of the captain, crew and passengers of the schooner Mertie B. Crowley, that ran aground and broke apart on the shoals off Martha's Vineyard in a raging northeaster. When she was a teenager she and her older sister, Margaret, went on fishing trips with their father and uncles during the summer, often unloading their catch at the Fulton Fish Market in New York city. She attended schools in Martha's Vineyard and New Bedford, and was a 1931 graduate of the Cambridge City Hospital School of Nursing. She took numerous courses at the University of Connecticut's continuing education program for nurses. In the 1930s she was an operating room nurse, in the early 1940s she worked as a private duty nurse in Greenwich, Conn. In the mid to late 1940s she operated the Mary Elizabeth Nursing Home in Medford. From 1949 to 1952 she was a nurse in the emergency room at the Lawrence Memorial Hospital in New London, Conn. For 17 years she was a visiting nurse for the Visiting Nurse Association of Groton, Conn. She also was a volunteer Red Cross nurse for many years, teaching Red Cross courses in New London, Conn. From 1969 to her retirement in 1980 she was director of nurses of the Martha's Vineyard Visiting Nurses Association of Vineyard Haven.

Mary moved to Bingham in 1980 and made her home with her daughter, Frederica, and son in law, William F. Page. For a short time she was a nurse at the Bingham Nursing Home in Bingham.

She was a communicant of St. Peter's Roman Catholic church, a member of St. Peter's Altar Guild, the Bingham Grange, the Goodwill Club, the Stanley Beane Post #99 American Legion Auxiliary, the Bingham Area Senior Citizens, Solon Homemakers and a 23-year member of the Somerset County Extension. For many years she operated the Goodwill Club medical equipment lending closet. She volunteered and operated for 14 years the Upper Kennebec Valley Chamber of Commerce Information Center in Bingham.

She was predeceased by her parents; her brother, Herbert U. Doucette, first mate, and brother in law, Capt. Joshua W. Murphy, lost at sea in 1955 aboard the fishing vessel Doris Gertrude out of New Bedford; sisters, Margaret Harney, Evangeline Murphy, Josephine Bauer of Edgartown, and her beloved son in law, William F. Page.

She is survived by her only child, Frederica Page-Melcher and son in law Edmund C. Melcher of Bingham; granddaughters Theresa Hyland and husband Bruce of Bingham, Adrienne Mathieu and husband Shawn of Moscow, Me., and Noel K. Page of Madison; great-grandchildren Rachel and Mark Hyland, Charles, Pierre, Zacherie and Samuel Mathieu; her brothers, Capt. Louis A. Doucette Jr., of Fairhaven, Ret. Master Sgt. Richard F. Doucette of Cambridge, N.Y., and her sister, Loretta G. Doucette of East Falmouth. Also surviving her are 18 nieces and nephews, numerous grand-nieces and nephews, and special friends Frances Gibson, Ray Francouer and Wes Baker of Bingham.

Calling hours are from 7 to 9 p.m. Tuesday, at the Giberson Funeral Home, 18 River street, in Bingham. A mass of Christian burial will be celebrated at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 17 at St. Peter's Catholic Church on Owens street in Bingham with Father Georges Plante officiating. Interment will be in Baker Cemetery, Moscow, Me. In lieu of flowers, one may make a memorial contribution to the Maine State Library, Special Service, Large Print Program, 64 State House Station, Augusta, ME 04330 or to St. Peter's Catholic Church, P.O.Box 667, Bingham, ME 04920.