- Date Of Death: February 17, 2014
- State: Maine
Mary “Midge” Margaret Brooks Vreeland
1950
February 17, 2014
MIDGE BROOKS VREELAND: A LIFE WELL LIVED IN MAINE,
ITALY AND LOUISIANA
GRAY, Maine – Family, friends, colleagues, clients and the Maine advertising community mourn the passing of Midge Vreeland, managing partner emeritus of Vreeland Marketing & Design in Yarmouth, who died February 17 in the company of loving family and friends at her home in Gray.
Midge was born Mary Margaret Brooks in Shreveport, LA in 1950. She still has the little cowgirl boots she wore to the Dixieland Nursery School, and remembered a time when folks took long afternoon naps in the southern heat. Her father Leon was an engineer, a gas and oil pipeline man in the Gulf of Mexico, Thailand, Bolivia and Alaska, and inspired his family with countless Leonisms, like “You can’t make people do right.” Midge took his advice to heart. She grew up bright, realistic, completely gracious and exceedingly kind. And very funny.
In an old family movie taken of Midge and her brother when she was a little girl, she says, “I just got an A on my paper. I’m so happy. So very, very happy… ” Midge grew up to be one of the dearest and most positive people that friends and family ever knew. Her younger brother Kix, who asks repeatedly in the video if he can sing a song, grew up to be part of the award-winning country music duo Brooks & Dunn. It was all there in that early home movie.
Midge graduated from Northwestern University, where she met her husband Stewart Vreeland on a blind date in 1971. Stew recalls seeing her for the first time as she walked down the stairs of her sorority house; he thought he’d never seen anyone more beautiful in his life. They have been together ever since.
When Midge and Stew married in 1973 they wrote down three goals for themselves: To live in Maine, where Stew had been stationed at the Brunswick Naval Air Station, to open their own advertising agency, which they did in 1978 in Brunswick and to live in Italy. They bought a home in Umbria, Italy, in 1999 and realized their dream in the medieval hilltop village of Panicale.
Midge and Stew lived in Yarmouth, ME, for many years. When their children – Zak, Wiley and Grayson – were young, Midge was active in Yarmouth community affairs; for example, she taught at North Yarmouth Academy and founded Yarmouth Day Care. In 1980 the agency moved to Main Street, Yarmouth, and later to Forest Falls Drive. Midge managed the agency, overseeing account strategy and service, as well as public relations, which she supported as an Accredited Public Relations Professional. She was proud of her Edward L. Bernays Achievement Award from the Maine Public Relations Council. She also received the Conwell Award for lifetime achievement from the Ad Club of Maine.
Midge held a B.S. in Communications from Northwestern University, completed graduate level courses at the University of Chicago and University of Southern Maine, and with her husband served as Adjunct Professor of Advertising at St. Joseph’s College in Standish, Maine. She was active in the First Parish Church of Yarmouth, Yarmouth Chamber of Commerce, Clam Festival, Ad Club, and for many years was president of the Spannocchia Foundation outside Siena, Italy.
In 2013 when the Vreelands celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary, their elder daughter Wiley recalled that she’d never seen people more in love. She drew a beautiful image of her father taking her mother by the hand to dance in the driveway of the John Calvin Stevens-renovated home in Gray that they made even more beautiful and playful with the addition of a bocce court and vines reminiscent of their Italian home.
In 2010 Midge had a recurrence of breast cancer, which had metastasized to her brain. Even in treatments she never stopped thinking of other people: those who invented the technology that was working so hard to diagnose and heal her, the kindness of the physicians and technicians who made her feel cared for, and the everyday concerns of her family, friends and colleagues. She said she passed the time in gratitude.
Midge continued to work every day and provide leadership for the agency. In late 2013 she and Stew sold Vreeland Marketing & Design to Creative Director Rich Davies and his wife Cindy in a transition she knew would maintain the values and service that were so important to her and had made her career so fulfilling. As Founding Partner Emeritus, Stew will continue to consult with, and inspire, the Vreeland team.
In 2013 Midge and Stew attended the Kentucky Derby and its many gala celebrity parties with Kix and his wife Barbara.
