SCARBOROUGH - Barbara (Purdy) Cole was born on Friday, Feb. 13, 1925, in a home at the foot of Winter Street in Gardiner. She gracefully passed from this earth on Easter, March 30, 2013, with family by her side. She was the youngest of six children of James and Lula (Hitchcock) Purdy. When she was 5, the family moved to Northern Avenue, where she grew up. She attended Grant Street School, where "I was perfectly behaved and never got the strap -- HA!" Barbara often shared fond memories of growing up on Northern Avenue, especially helping her father take care of the cows, horses, pigs, chickens, dogs and cats. She was proud of the families three-holer, where her brother, Wilder, hung a self-written poem:
If to this house you chance to come
To do the duties that must be done
Be neat, be clean and one thing more
Cover the hole and shut the door.
Wilder flew B-24s in World War II and he was shot down and killed in action east of the Philippines when Barb was a senior in high school. The entire family to this day feels Wilder's loss.
After graduating from high school, Barb went to work as an operator at New England Telephone & Telegraph in Gardiner, where she would on occasion say to the caller, "bumble beez." One day at lunch with fellow operator Rita "Nana" Cole she met Nana's son, Charlie, who had just returned from World War II, having served aboard the USS Hornet (CV-12) in the Western Pacific. Dates led to their marriage on June 29, 1947. They honeymooned for a week in an isolated northern Maine woods cabin on Square Lake, where friends had the bed springs fitted with bells and replaced all the clothes in their suitcases with rags. Barb thought it all quite funny, Charlie not so much. One interesting family story of Barbara, over her lunch break at the motor vehicle office, she would care for Olympia Snowe as a baby while Olympia's parents served lunch at their café. We recently celebrated this story with Olympia's family. Barbara later took another job as a Gardiner school crossing guard.
Barb was predeceased by her loving husband, Charlie, on Nov. 25, 2012, who she has deeply missed. She is survived by her sons, Fred, and wife Nora Cole, of San Diego, and John and wife Beryl Cole, of Scarborough; and so many dear and close family members, all of whom miss her greatly.
Burial services will be in Oak Grove Cemetery, Gardiner. (Kennebec Journal 4/6/2013)
If to this house you chance to come
To do the duties that must be done
Be neat, be clean and one thing more
Cover the hole and shut the door.
Wilder flew B-24s in World War II and he was shot down and killed in action east of the Philippines when Barb was a senior in high school. The entire family to this day feels Wilder's loss.
After graduating from high school, Barb went to work as an operator at New England Telephone & Telegraph in Gardiner, where she would on occasion say to the caller, "bumble beez." One day at lunch with fellow operator Rita "Nana" Cole she met Nana's son, Charlie, who had just returned from World War II, having served aboard the USS Hornet (CV-12) in the Western Pacific. Dates led to their marriage on June 29, 1947. They honeymooned for a week in an isolated northern Maine woods cabin on Square Lake, where friends had the bed springs fitted with bells and replaced all the clothes in their suitcases with rags. Barb thought it all quite funny, Charlie not so much. One interesting family story of Barbara, over her lunch break at the motor vehicle office, she would care for Olympia Snowe as a baby while Olympia's parents served lunch at their café. We recently celebrated this story with Olympia's family. Barbara later took another job as a Gardiner school crossing guard.
Barb was predeceased by her loving husband, Charlie, on Nov. 25, 2012, who she has deeply missed. She is survived by her sons, Fred, and wife Nora Cole, of San Diego, and John and wife Beryl Cole, of Scarborough; and so many dear and close family members, all of whom miss her greatly.
Burial services will be in Oak Grove Cemetery, Gardiner. (Kennebec Journal 4/6/2013)
SCARBOROUGH - Barbara (Purdy) Cole was born on Friday, Feb. 13, 1925, in a home at the foot of Winter Street in Gardiner. She gracefully passed from this earth on Easter, March 30, 2013, with family by her side. She was the youngest of six children of James and Lula (Hitchcock) Purdy. When she was 5, the family moved to Northern Avenue, where she grew up. She attended Grant Street School, where "I was perfectly behaved and never got the strap -- HA!" Barbara often shared fond memories of growing up on Northern Avenue, especially helping her father take care of the cows, horses, pigs, chickens, dogs and cats. She was proud of the families three-holer, where her brother, Wilder, hung a self-written poem:
If to this house you chance to come
To do the duties that must be done
Be neat, be clean and one thing more
Cover the hole and shut the door.
Wilder flew B-24s in World War II and he was shot down and killed in action east of the Philippines when Barb was a senior in high school. The entire family to this day feels Wilder's loss.
After graduating from high school, Barb went to work as an operator at New England Telephone & Telegraph in Gardiner, where she would on occasion say to the caller, "bumble beez." One day at lunch with fellow operator Rita "Nana" Cole she met Nana's son, Charlie, who had just returned from World War II, having served aboard the USS Hornet (CV-12) in the Western Pacific. Dates led to their marriage on June 29, 1947. They honeymooned for a week in an isolated northern Maine woods cabin on Square Lake, where friends had the bed springs fitted with bells and replaced all the clothes in their suitcases with rags. Barb thought it all quite funny, Charlie not so much. One interesting family story of Barbara, over her lunch break at the motor vehicle office, she would care for Olympia Snowe as a baby while Olympia's parents served lunch at their café. We recently celebrated this story with Olympia's family. Barbara later took another job as a Gardiner school crossing guard.
Barb was predeceased by her loving husband, Charlie, on Nov. 25, 2012, who she has deeply missed. She is survived by her sons, Fred, and wife Nora Cole, of San Diego, and John and wife Beryl Cole, of Scarborough; and so many dear and close family members, all of whom miss her greatly.
Burial services will be in Oak Grove Cemetery, Gardiner. (Kennebec Journal 4/6/2013)
If to this house you chance to come
To do the duties that must be done
Be neat, be clean and one thing more
Cover the hole and shut the door.
Wilder flew B-24s in World War II and he was shot down and killed in action east of the Philippines when Barb was a senior in high school. The entire family to this day feels Wilder's loss.
After graduating from high school, Barb went to work as an operator at New England Telephone & Telegraph in Gardiner, where she would on occasion say to the caller, "bumble beez." One day at lunch with fellow operator Rita "Nana" Cole she met Nana's son, Charlie, who had just returned from World War II, having served aboard the USS Hornet (CV-12) in the Western Pacific. Dates led to their marriage on June 29, 1947. They honeymooned for a week in an isolated northern Maine woods cabin on Square Lake, where friends had the bed springs fitted with bells and replaced all the clothes in their suitcases with rags. Barb thought it all quite funny, Charlie not so much. One interesting family story of Barbara, over her lunch break at the motor vehicle office, she would care for Olympia Snowe as a baby while Olympia's parents served lunch at their café. We recently celebrated this story with Olympia's family. Barbara later took another job as a Gardiner school crossing guard.
Barb was predeceased by her loving husband, Charlie, on Nov. 25, 2012, who she has deeply missed. She is survived by her sons, Fred, and wife Nora Cole, of San Diego, and John and wife Beryl Cole, of Scarborough; and so many dear and close family members, all of whom miss her greatly.
Burial services will be in Oak Grove Cemetery, Gardiner. (Kennebec Journal 4/6/2013)
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