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Earl Merrow, Jr.
Center Ossipee native, fan of local sports
OSSIPEE - Earl T. “Junior” Merrow, Jr., 82, of Moultonville Road, died April 12, 2002, at Huggins Hospital in Wolfeboro, following a period of failing health.
A native and lifelong resident of Center Ossipee, he was born April 2, 1920, son of Earl T. and Flora (Templeton) Merrow.
He served as a corporal in the U.S. Air Force during World War II. After returning from overseas, he worked for the R.E.A. Electric Company before owning and operating Merrow Filling Station in Center Ossipee. He later built and operated Merrow’s Laundromat on Moultonville Road.
Through most of his life, he was a self-employed carpenter and plumber in the Ossipee area.
He will also be remembered as a bus driver for the Governor Wentworth Regional School District; he will be missed by the many athletes he transported to different sporting events. He loved sports and was an avid supporter of his son, Mark, and his grandchildren, Joshua and Alison.
He was a member of Ossipee Valley Lodge F & AM 74, Center Ossipee, and a past member of the Whittier Lions Club. He was a member of Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 8270 in Center Ossipee.
Family members include his wife of 52 years, Agnes (Williams) Merrow of Center Ossipee; his son, Mark E. Merrow of Wolfeboro; his grandson and granddaughter, both of Wolfeboro; and many nieces and nephews.
Services were Aril 17 at Moultonville Methodist Church. Burial will be at Grant Hill Cemetery, Center Ossipee, at a later date.
Memorial donations may be made to VNA-Hospice of Southern Carroll County, P.O. Box 1620, Wolfeboro, NH 03894.
Marjorie Preston
Retired newspaper reporter, volunteer
WOLFEBORO - Marjorie Edith (Wilson) Preston, 81, of Crescent Lake Avenue, died Monday, April 15, 2002, at Concord Hospital.
She was born Jan. 14, 1921, in Worcester, Mass., daughter of Harold and Inez (Lazott) Wilson. She lived most of her adult life in Ipswich, Mass., and retired to Tuftonboro, moving to Wolfeboro several years ago.
She was a graduate of Quincy High School and worked as a newspaper reporter for the Ipswich Chronicle, the Beverly Times and the Granite State News.
She was an active member of Melvin Village Community Church, volunteered, writing newsletters for the Melvin Village Hikers Club, appraisals for Dow’s Antiques, Huggins Hospital and the Appalachian Mountain Teen Project.
She sang with the Clearlakes Chorale and enjoyed travel, sunsets and the moon, cross-country skiing, rowing, the outdoors and opera.
She was the widow of Leonard F. Preston, who died in 1994.
Family members include a son, Donald Preston of Beverly, Mass.; two daughters, Susan Paige of Windham, Maine, and Sally Hennesey of Merrimack, Mass.; a brother, Donald Wilson of West Boylston, Mass.; a sister, Janet Thirkield of Cincinnati, Ohio; six grandchildren; two stepgrandchildren; six great-grandchildren; and several nieces, nephews and cousins.
A memorial service will be Saturday, April 20, at 10 a.m. at Melvin Village Community Church. Inurnment will be at 3:30 p.m. in Highland Cemetery, Ipswich, Mass.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Melvin Village Community Church.
Baker-Gagne Funeral Homes and Cremation Service in Wolfeboro is in charge of arrangements.
Muriel Rouillard
Former longtime resident of Massachusetts
WOLFEBORO - Muriel Rouillard, 90, whose mother first opened what is now the Wolfeboro Inn as a lodging and dining establishment, died unexpected at her home here March 16, 2002, from cardiopulmonary arrest.
An exceptionally youthful spirit, the former 85-year resident of Massachusetts last listed her profession in the Stoneham voter list as “dilettante.”
Born in 1911, the eldest of five children of Clarence and Hazel (Rugg) Carlisle, she grew up in the Wollaston section of Quincy, Mass. A 1931 graduate of Thayer Academy, she there sat in front of Wollaston friend John Cheever.
After Cheever’s expulsion for smoking, she mounted a petition drive for his reinstatement. Though her petition was unavailing, the upshot may have been all to the good, she said, since Cheever went on to fame as a novelist and Thayer went on to claim credit for his formative years.
In 1931, her mother bought the Nathaniel Rogers Homestead in Wolfeboro and opened the Copper Kettle. “Copper Kettle Corner” was the name of the restaurant on the premises, which, according to Wolfeboro historian Q. David Bowers, “…offered luncheon, tea, gifts…Transients accommodated. Rooms and meals.”
Among the transients Muriel Rouillard recalled was tennis great Bill Tilden, a lodger who ate only melon and rare steaks. She said she was so inept as a waitress that her mother moved her into the office to help keep the books.
The venture was not an enduring success. Hazel Carlisle relinquished management and returned to Wollaston. The Copper Kettle (now the Wolfeboro Inn) was sold in 1936.
Meanwhile, Muriel had attended Colby (now Colby-Sawyer) College in New London, Class of ’33, and also returned to Wollaston. She said she “moped around” in various jobs before joining the staff at Goodspeed’s Book Shop on Boston’s Beacon Hill.
Though she studied at Thayer and Colby, Muriel said her education truly began after she had joined the Goodspeed’s staff. Once, she said, a customer whom she either wouldn’t or couldn’t name asked if the store had any erotica. Unfamiliar with the work, she shouted his request to the other end of the shop. All heads turned as she was led away for a quiet vocabulary lesson.
A lifelong Congregational-ist, she spent more than 50 years with First Baptist Church in Stoneham, where her first husband, John Farquharson, head of genealogy and town history acquisitions at Goodspeed’s, was moderator and she was church secretary.
John Farquharson died in 1983. Her youngest son, Duncan Farquharson, died tragically at age 38 of a heart attack less than two years later when a friend’s yacht encountered a violent storm on a return trip from Bermuda.
In 1985, doing volunteer work, she met Jim Rouillard, feature writer for Middlesex East Publications and some years her junior. Acquaintance grew to friendship and a love which surprised them both. They were married in 1987. One of their friends, poet Joyce Adamson, wrote a sonnet for the event: “ October roses, rare and sweet / Face winter, yet deny defeat…”
Muriel Carlisle Rouillard certainly defied defeat. Through loss and sometime hardship, she kept her wry wit and good humor, regaling Wolfeboro friends and loved ones to keep them in joy and laughter to the very last.
A life member of the Stoneham Historical Society and former director of the Fuller House in Stoneham, she leaves her husband, James Rouillard of Wolfeboro; her son, Dr. Donald Farquharson of Park Hill, Westmoreland; a brother, Richard Carlisle, of Quincy, Mass.; three sisters, Caroline Bonsey Hoffman of Oakhurst, Calif., Helen Pinkham Altimari of DelMar, N.Y., and Ruth Thompson of Springfield, Vt.; three granddaughters; and her beloved Swee’pea Mixed Terrier Rouillard of Wolfeboro.
A service in celebration of her life will be held in May at the Bigelow Chapel, Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, Mass. All are welcome.
Donations may be made in her memory to Lakes Region Humane Society, POB 2231, Wolfeboro, NH 03894.
Arrangements are by Anderson-Bryant Funeral Home of Stoneham.
Randall Whittier Jr.
Longtime volunteer at Huggins Hospital
TUFTONBORO - Randall A. Whittier, Jr., 90, of Tuftonboro, died April 9, 2002, at Huggins Hospital after a brief illness.
He was born Oct. 3, 1911, in Bedford, Mass., son of Randall and Jane (Blakney) Whittier. He had been a resident of Marblehead, Mass., before moving to Tuftonboro in 1977.
For many years, he was sales manager for George H. Sweetnam Co. of Cambridge, Mass. After an early retirement, he was a home builder in Marblehead, Mass.
In Tuftonboro, he served as president of the Mirror Lake Church for a number of years. He was also a longtime volunteer at Huggins Hospital.
Family members include his wife of 46 years, Alida (DuPont); two stepsons, Gerald O’Connell of Bristol, R.I., and Paul O’Connell of Deerfield; five grandchildren; six great-grandchildren; and one niece and two nephews.
A private memorial service and burial will be held in Marblehead, Mass., at a later date.
In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to VNA-Hospice of Southern Carroll County and Vicinity, PO Box 1620, Wolfeboro, NH 03894, or to the charity of your choice.
Baker-Gagne Funeral Home and Cremation Service of Wolfeboro is in charge of arrangements.
Richard R. Caples
Former Bay State public safety commissioner
WOLFEBORO - Richard R. Caples, 80, a former aide to Massachusetts Governor Endicott “Chub” Peabody, died Sunday, April 28, 2002, at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon.
Although he was perhaps best known for his midnight appointment as public safety commissioner of Massachusetts during Peabody’s final days as governor in 1964, Mr. Caples had a long and distinguished career in law and public service.
He was born in Boston, Mass., and graduated from Princeton University and Boston University Law School.
A World War II veteran of the U.S. Navy, he was also a member of the Naval Reserve for 27 years.
He was a Democrat and represented Brighton in the Massachusetts House of Representative from 1951 to 1960. He represented the Third Suffolk District in the Massachusetts Senate from 1960 to 1964.
He practiced law in Boston for many years and was an assistant attorney general for four years, during the administration of Attorney General Robert H. Quinn.
In his retirement, he lived in Wolfeboro, where he worked as a real estate broker.
Family members include his wife, Phyllis E. (Chase) Caples; two sons, Richard F. of Vail, Colo., and Daniel P. of Wayland, Mass.; a daughter, Susan E. of Belmont, Mass.; a sister, Dorothy A. Palmer of Weymouth, Mass.; and two grandchildren. He was predeceased by a brother, Frank, of North Conway, who died recently at the Veterans Home in Tilton.
A funeral Mass was said at St. Julia Church in Weston, Mass. Burial was private.
Memorial donations may be made to the Friends of Wolfeboro Public Library, PO Box 710, Wolfeboro, NH 03894.
Lillian Eldridge
Enjoyed her friends and family
NORTHFIELD - Lillian A. Eldridge, 78, of Concord Road, died suddenly on Thursday, May 9, 2002, at her granddaughter Jennifer’s home in Concord.
She was born April 25, 1924, in Wolfeboro, daughter of Fred and Ida (Drew) Dore.
She was a long-time resident of Northfield.
She was a caring and loving person, who really enjoyed her friends and family. She especially enjoyed spending time with her great grand daughter. She loved cats, especially her favorite cat, Tiny. She also loved going to yard sales.
Family members include her husband of 55 years Roy E. Eldridge, of Northfield; a brother Roger Dore, of Concord; two sisters Norma Eaton, of Concord, and Irene DeCoeur, of Florida; one granddaughter, Jennifer L. Eldridge, of Boscawen; a great granddaughter and several nieces and nephews.
She was predeceased by her son Ernest R. Eldridge in 1999.
A calling hour was held May 13 at the United Church of Penacook and a funeral service was held at 11 a.m. A graveside service was held Monday afternoon at Grant Hill Cemetery in Ossipee.
Afforable Funeral and Cremation Services Inc. was in charge of arrangements.
