Vivian Foy Stacey

Vivian Foy Stacey, 101, of South Orleans, Massachusetts and Bradenton, Florida died peacefully at her home in South Orleans, surrounded by loved ones, on September 5. Her husband, Joel Phillips Stacey, predeceased her in 2007.

Stricken with infantile paralysis as a child, she was encouraged by her doctors-- over the objections of her family--to study dance and by chance discovered a considerable gift for teaching, presenting her first recital with her own pupils on her fourteenth birthday. Her dance teacher also taught elocution, the study of which led to various public performances, including an invitation to recite for Henry Ford at the Wayside Inn. Friends often listened to her appearances on WTAG in Worcester with their crystal radios in the early 1920’s, when radio was new, and she later appeared regularly on an early cooking show broadcast from the Houghton and Dutton department store in Boston as the little girl who came to taste the day’s recipe and recite. Because it was on the radio, there was, in fact, no food. In her final weeks, she could still recite many of the “pieces” she had memorized as a young girl.

During the Depression, she was invited to join the Federal Theatre Project of the WPA as the ingénue in a Boston production of The Late Christopher Bean. In his not wholly enthusiastic review, Eliot Norton said, “We could certainly have seen more of Susan.” She also appeared at the Cape Playhouse in Dennis. Because the Depression had caused her to give up her dream of attending Mt. Holyoke College, she became a strong lifelong advocate for education and helped many others to achieve it.

From prior to World War II, she taught dance, particularly ballroom dancing and social etiquette, for nearly thirty years on Boston’s North Shore and eventually in Southern Maine, where her husband’s business took them. Upon her retirement in 1985, the Maine Legislature commended her by resolution “for a career of over sixty years in dance, during which she taught over 30,000 students.” At that time, she established two scholarship funds, still existing and now administered by Thornton Academy in Saco, Maine, one in her own name, for graduates going into the arts and another in the name of her late daughter-in law for those going into public service. In retirement she served on the vestry and finance committee of the Church of the Holy Spirit and as president of its branch of the Episcopal Church Women. One of her fellow members recalled her skills in running meetings, raising funds, and organizing social events, particularly elegant dinners, adding: “Her efforts allowed us to do things for and in the church that we had never done before. I think she has already beaten Martha Stewart to her place in heaven.” Bored in retirement, she organized and supervised (until she was 100) a bed and breakfast in South Orleans that brought interesting people from all over the world to replace the friends and relatives she was increasingly losing and to recreate the bustle she was used to having around her. Urged on by one of her children, who had read an article about the necessity to make younger friends in old age, she retorted, “And just what other choice do I have?”

When her family was planning her 100th birthday celebration, she announced, “I want dancing at my party,” and added, “And if I am not there, I hope you will all dance anyway." The Bradenton (Florida) Herald, which covered the party, wrote, “Vivian Stacey took a wheelchair ride to the dance floor and was led out because of her legal blindness. But once on the surface and in the arms of her son, she performed effortlessly, like a ballerina. She came off the floor after one tender dance.”

Roger Stacey observed, “She faced the depredations of age with dignity and courage and preserved her lovingkindness, sharp wit and remarkable natural courtesy, even in her final illness. She brought intelligence, grace, and high standards to everything she did and inspired those qualities in others, changing many people’s lives in the process. We have already begun hearing from them.”

Vivian Stacey is survived by four children: Joel Phillips Stacey (Nancy Sewall Stacey), Roger Foy Stacey (Maureen Lynch, MD), Suzanne Wall (the late Joseph M. Wall), William Frederic Stacey, II; six grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren. The family is profoundly grateful to her remarkable most recent caregivers, Karen Williams, JoAnne Balboni, and Fernanda Morais, and to Deborah Hopkins, her extraordinary nurse/case manager (and her numerous associates) from Hope Healthcare. In place of flowers, memorial contributions may be directed to the Vivian Foy Stacey Scholarship Fund at Thornton Academy, Main Street. Saco, Maine 04072. A service will be held at The Church of the Holy Spirit, South Orleans, on September 24 at two o’clock.

For online condolences, please visit www.nickersonfunerals.com.