CUSHING — Everybody called her mom – everybody. Mary was a school teacher most of her adult life, and when she taught at U-32 High School in East Montpelier, Vermont, everybody called her mom. Three of her children were students at this school, where they shared her willingly with her students. She was that kind of person, that kind of teacher, that kind of caring person — the one who teaches you so much more than what’s in the classroom.

Mary Elizabeth Perrin was born in Greensboro, Vermont, on October 2, 1929. She grew up in Greensboro with her mother, Dorothy Willey Perrin, her father J. Newton Perrin, III, and her younger brother, Edward Perrin. Eventually, they moved to Plainfield, Vermont. That’s where she met a boy who would later become her boyfriend, fiancé, then husband of 64 years, Paul Andrews.

According to family legend, Mary rebuffed Paul for several years until after they graduated from high school. Their graduating classes weren’t too large, in the mid teens, so everybody got to know each other pretty well. In fact, Mary grew friendships in Plainfield that endured for decades. Those decades of friendship, love, and support defined what Mary meant to others.

After graduating from Green Mountain College, she finished her bachelors degree at Boston University. She and Paul married soon thereafter, in 1951, and moved to Bristol, Vermont. There they both started their careers of
teaching; Paul didn’t last long, but Mary sure did. They also started their family, and eventually had four children.

Mary was a teacher for more than a decade until she moved to managing the records department at Goddard  College in Plainfield, Vermont. Although she enjoyed her work there, she longed to return to teaching, which she eventually did at U–32 High School in East Montpelier, Vermont in 1974.

Once the last of her four children finished high school in 1978, Mary and her husband moved to Gay Island in Cushing, Maine. She and Paul lived on the island for most of the year, moving off in the winter months. Every day, he took her by boat over to the mainland, she hopped into her car, and went off to work. Some days the tides were not kind, and falling into the flats mud was always a possibility.

Mary worked at FMC as an office manager in Rockland until her retirement in 1995.

While living in Cushing, she reveled in many community activities, centering mostly around the church. She loved being involved in many church related activities, including the annual fair, public suppers, and the sewing group. She also volunteered weekly at the Cushing Community School, cooking with the kindergarten students. In fact, She enjoyed these activities with two of her grandchildren. She also enjoyed so much singing with the Down East Singers  for many years, one of the few altos in the group.

In 2015, Mary lost Paul, and she then lived alone in their house in Cushing, Maine, next door to one of her children, his wife, and two grandchildren. Just two years ago, she moved into assisted living, needing that level of care, and then to the adjoining nursing facility in Camden, Maine.

She is lovingly survived by her brother, Edward Perrin, and her sister-in-law, Carol Perrin, who live in Seattle, Washington. Mary’s oldest daughter, Jody Dewey, and her husband Bruce Dewey, live in Granby, Connecticut. Her daughter, Evan Andrews, lives in Westfield, Massachusetts. Her son, Kevin Andrews and wife Suzy Andrews, live in Cumberland, Maine. And her son, Loren Andrews and wife Rita Furlow, live in Cushing, Maine.

Mary has seven grandchildren and three great grandchildren, spanning in age from 2 years to 37 years old.

A celebration of her life has been set for Saturday, September 21, at 11 a.m., at the Broad Cove Community Church in Cushing. Whether or not you can attend, please join us — her family — in remembering this loving, caring, giving, and wonderful woman, Mary Andrews.

Hall’s of Thomaston has care of the arrangements.