ROCKPORT: Mary Sabine Schade, 88, died peacefully on Tuesday, November 8, 2011 at Oak Hill Manor in Ithaca N.Y., in the company of her two daughters.
Born Mary Duffield Sabine in 1923, she grew up in Chevy Chase, Md. Mary later earned her Art Education degree from Wheelock College in Boston, Mass. She began her teaching career in Hingham, Mass., married Addison Fenton Schade in 1949, and moved to Beverly, Mass. They later lived in Essex, So. Hamilton and Rockport, Mass. After raising four children, she returned to teaching art for many years at Topsfield Elementary School, running her grocery cart of art supplies from room to room. Upon retirement, she opened Rocky Hill Studio at her home in Essex. She built a small ceramics business where she would “go to pot“ as well as holding open studios in portraiture with pastels and paint. Upon the death of her beloved Addison in 2005, she moved to Ithaca, N.Y., to be lovingly cared for by her daughter Camilla and the memory-care facility of Clare Bridge. During her last years, she became known for her exuberant love of music, her gentility and her rich humor.
Mary shared her vibrant creativity with so many, young and old alike. Art was as breath to her and was her deepest communion with God. She adamantly believed that art was necessary to living, and would so freely share her skills and passion that many were inspired to develop their own creative voices.
Mary’s great compassion for the disadvantaged brought her to work devotedly at Gloucester’s Open Door Food Pantry for several years, serving meals and enjoying conversation with those in need. She loved to walk and had been a regular participant in the Gloucester Pride Stride.
Mary is survived by her son, William of Seattle, Wa.; daughter and son-in-law, Camilla Schade and Bruce Fearon of Cayutaville, N.Y.; daughter, son-in-law and step-grandson, Carolyn, Rufus and Matt Cadigan of Rockford, Ill.; and son, Alan of Lancaster, Pa.
Her memorial service will be held in the St. John's Episcopal Church, 48 Middle St., Gloucester at 11 am followed by a reception in the Parish Hall. Expressions of sympathy may be made in her memory to The Open Door Food Pantry, 28 Emerson Ave., Gloucester, MA 01930.