Vera Roslyn MacBean Kaulback

Vera Roslyn MacBean Kaulback passed away on July 13, 2011, in Danbury, Connecticut. She celebrated her 91st birthday just two weeks previously with friends at Filosa Convalescent Home in Danbury, Connecticut, where she resided since January.

Vera was born in St. Malachi, Quebec, on June 25, 1920, the daughter of Annie Rutherford McBean and Albert McBean, at the dairy farm of her maternal grandparents. Her parents brought her home to Rumford, Maine shortly after her birth. Vera grew up in Rumford with her parents, her two brothers, Wesley and Ray, and other beloved aunts, uncles and cousins. She lived her entire life as a Mainer, until, at age 89, she moved to Connecticut to be closer to her two daughters. The Rumford vicinity was her home for the first thirty-nine years of her life, until 1959, when she moved to Yarmouth.

In 1942, she married Lloyd Kaulback, who served in the South Pacific as a Seabee for three years in World War II. After the war, they lived with their two daughters in Rumford and summered in Harpswell and at Worthley Pond, East Peru, Maine. They enjoyed many happy times with their extended family and members of their church family from the Rumford Baptist Church.

Vera graduated from Stephens High School in 1937 and from Farmington Normal School in 1940. In 1957, she earned her bachelor’s degree from Farmington. She took courses and studied constantly throughout her life, working toward her master’s degree and taking courses in the countless subjects that interested her. She believed in and loved learning and wanted to share her love of learning with others around her.

Vera’s first teaching job was in the two-room school house in Wilson Mills. She taught for over thirty years in Mexico, Rumford, Virginia, Freeport and Yarmouth, Maine. Her last position was as reading consultant for the Yarmouth Public Schools. She loved teaching and the hundreds of students that she taught over her career, and many of them remembered her and contacted her in later years, bringing pictures and sharing stories of their time together. One of the family’s favorite stories was when the dryer in her condo at Blueberry Cove caught on fire and the firemen that showed up were all former students. She also thoroughly enjoyed her fellow teachers and colleagues and met regularly with many of them after retirement. Her Wednesday Breakfasts with other retired teachers at Downeast Restaurant in Yarmouth were a regular part of her life even after a serious car accident in 1999 which prompted a move into assisted living at Bay Square in Yarmouth, where she lived for the next ten years. Although it was initially thought that she might not survive the accident, through rehabilitation and perseverance, she learned once again to walk, talk, and even swallow.

When she wasn’t reading or studying, she enjoyed decorating and had a flair for color and style, which was evident in her wardrobe and dressing throughout her life. Even in the assisted living and nursing home days, people often commented on her stylishness and sense of color.

Vera was well known in Yarmouth not only from the many years she taught there but also from her active participation in the Yarmouth Baptist Church as a deacon and Superintendent of Sunday Schools. It was nearly impossible to have a meal with her at any restaurant around Yarmouth without having the meal happily interrupted several times by friends and former students who recognized her.

Her husband, Lloyd, who was a vice-president of Hannaford Brothers and manager of Food Town stores in Lewiston, Auburn, and Rumford, passed away in 1975. As a widow, Vera continued an active and engaged life, traveling around the United States, Canada, and Europe with family and friends. Her special traveling companion was her sister-in-law Marion and she and Marion spent winters in Sanibel, Florida for many years. She and Marion had many entertaining escapades together and were known in their family as “Lucy and Ethel,” in reference to the comedians of the “I Love Lucy” television show. Vera studied painting and, in her 60s, rode on a float in the Yarmouth Clam Festival as a “Budding Young Artist of America.”

Some of the happiest times of her life were the summers that she worked at Tripp Lake as a waitress. Up to the last week of her life, her family could bring a smile to her face by reminding her of her Tripp Lake adventures.

She is survived by her two daughters and their spouses, Brenda Kaulback and Rosemary Talmadge, of North Salem, New York, and Casco, Maine, and Carol and Michael Vaughn of Rowayton, Connecticut and Boca Grande, Florida; her grandchildren, Shannon Lucas, Talmadge Nardi, Alexandra Vaughn, and Andrew Vaughn; and her great-grandson, her “little sweetheart,” Galileo Daras. Also surviving her are her several nieces and nephews and her cousins Muriel Britton and Jean Visnauskis. She was predeceased by her husband, Lloyd, her brothers and their wives, Raymond and Faye McBean and Wesley and Marion McBean.

Family and friends are invited to attend a time of visitation Saturday July 16, 2011 from 9 – 10 a.m. at the Jones, Rich & Hutchins Funeral Home 199 Woodford St. Portland.

Funeral services will follow at 10 a.m. at the funeral home. Her niece and nephew, Peter and Teresa McBean of Richmond, Virginia, will officiate. Teresa is minister of Northstar Community Church in Richmond.

Interment will be at the Farrington-Morton Cemetery in Mexico, Maine, at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday.

Contributions can be made in memory of her great-nephew Craig to the Craig Thomas McBean Memorial Scholarship Fund, (MSAD #22, Superintendent’s Office, 24 Maine Road North, Hampden, ME 04444), or to Vera’s alma mater, the University of Maine at Farmington, where there is a scholarship in her name (Pat Carpenter, Director of Gift Planning and Stewardship, University of Maine at Farmington, Ferro Alumni Center, 242 Main Street, Farmington, Maine, 04938).

The family would like to express gratitude to the many care-givers who assisted Vera through-out her last years, including the wonderful people at Bay Square in Yarmouth, Maine, at Filosa Convalescent Home in Danbury, Connecticut, and the staff and volunteers of Regional Hospice of Western Connecticut.

One of Vera's favorite (and fitting) quotes was “Life is short, eat dessert first.”

Please visit www.jonesrichandhutchins.com for additional information and to sign Vera’s guestbook.