Fort Myers, Fla.
Joanne Sawyer Rathbun passed away on July 26, 2022, at the Gulf Coast Hospital in Fort Myers, Fla. She was born to Maynard and Florence Gray of Addison on March 20, 1933, the fourth of their five daughters and fifth of their seven children.
Though she grew up in a house without indoor plumbing or central heating, and shared a bed with two of her sisters, their home was filled with so much love she often remarked that they had lived “like millionaires without money.” After attending the one-room school in Indian River through eighth grade, she went on to graduate from Jonesport High School in 1950. Refusing to get married until she had received her diploma, Joanne married Waide F. Sawyer of Milbridge on the Saturday following her graduation. During the 1960s, Joanne and Waide lived on Main Street in Milbridge with their three children, Dana, Cynthia (Cindy) and Paul, moving to Franklin in 1972, where Joanne lived for many years, even after Waide’s death in 1987.
During the last 20 years of life, Joanne resided in Florida (first in Clearwater, then Fort Myers) with her husband, Lee Rathbun, a retiree from the Coast Guard with whom she was extremely happy. Joanne had a long and joyous life that she would often attribute to the positive attitude, deep faith and witty sense of humor inherited from her parents and siblings. Joanne made the world a better place. She will be deeply missed — but always celebrated — by her three children and their spouses, her four grandchildren, four great-grandchildren, surviving sister (Norma Milam of Franklin), 22 nieces and nephews and more dear friends than there are lakes in Maine. A memorial for Joanne at the Evergreen Cemetery in Milbridge is pending for later this fall (for more information, email Dana at dsawyer@meca.edu).