- Date Of Birth: July 4, 1919
- Date Of Death: March 20, 2013
- State: Maine
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.
