Community Photo Album

 

 

Mae Beck of Gray, Maine turns 100 years young on 5-5-05

Her life so far:

She was born Annie Mae Scruton on 5 May 1905 in West Fairlee, Vermont. Mae was the youngest child and only daughter of Charles S. and Annie Thompson Scruton, Jr.. The family lived with her widowed grandfather, Charles S. Scruton Sr., on the family farm near the top of Scruton Hill Road. When Mae was ten months old her mother died of pneumonia. Her father, an itinerant laborer, left the children with his father when he was looking
for work. Charles Scruton Sr. died in 1915 at the age of eighty-five. The
family was broken up. Mae's two older brothers went to live on a nearby
farm. Mae eventually went to live with the widow of her father's brother,
Susie Scruton, in the nearby town of Newbury.

Aunt Susie took in laundry and kept chickens to pay the bills. Her house was located near the center of town so Mae attended the local high school and the Congrega tional Church nearby. Mae helped Aunt Susie with the laundry and worked for a local woman cleaning. Later she worked in a small restaurant.

When Mae graduated from high school in 1924 she went on to the University of Vermont in Burlington where she majored in Home Economics. Summers she worked at a children's camp to earn money to pay for school.

She met Henry Beck who was finishing up Medical School there. Mae dropped out of college with one year left. Henry and Mae were married on September 24,1927 in Lawrence, Massachusetts and moved to Maine. Henry did his intemship at Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston. In 1928 they moved to Gray where Dr. Beck set up a practice. A son, Henry Jr., was born January 6, 1930 followed by a daughter, Dorothy, on April 7,
1932.

She met Henry Beck who was finishing up Medical School there. Mae dropped out of college with one year left. Henry and Mae were married on September 24,1927 in Lawrence, Massachusetts and moved to Maine. Henry did his intemship at Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston. In 1928 they moved to Gray where Dr. Beck set up a practice. A son. Henry Jr., was born January 6, 1930 followed by a daughter, Dorothy, on April 7,
1932.

Raising a family and helping her husband with his practise kept Mae busy. As her family grew she found more time for volunteer activities. During World War II she was the Red Cross Coordinator for Gray as well as a volunteer for the Gray Civil Defense.

After her husband's death in 1957 Mae toured the country visiting various relatives then settled down to help her daughter, Dorothy, raise her daughter, Elizabeth, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. When Dorothy married in 1971 Mae returned to Gray to the brick house on Main Street that she and her husband had bought in 1930. She jumped into volunteering in a big way.

Mae finished up her seven year Girl Scout career with a year spent with the Gray Cadette Troop. She also took on raising money to pay off the new Parish House at the Gray Congregational Church. She became the chair of the Cancer Drive in Gray, a position she continued through 1988 even making a local commercial for the Drive.

In 1971 the Portland Press Herald asked the Gray Extension Group to take on the Christmas Caravan as a community service project. Mae has been involved in this from the beginning and continued to spearhead the effort after the Portland Press Herald stopped supporting the project, working to make sure every needy child in her community got something for Christmas. It was only a few years ago that she had to give us this project due to health problems.

When the need for Senior Citizens Housing became apparent in Gray Mae got involved. Meadowview Senior Citizens Housing was the result. Mae remains on the Board of Directors and was Treasurer until recent years.

Mae also entered politics when she ran for the Town Council in 1983. She served through 1989. During this time Gray experienced a lot of growth and Mae put her priorities on preserving Gray's water supply. She has served on the Recycling Committee and the Dry Mills Schoolhouse Committee, among others.

This is just a sampling of what one person has accomplished in
one hundred years. Let's hope we all have the stamina to accomplish just a
little in our time.