Lebanon----Mary M. VanderNoot, 77, died Sunday, September 25, 2016, at the Genesis Nursing Facility in Lebanon, where she spent the final months of her long battle with cancer. Mary was a lifelong resident of Laconia.
Mary was born July 22, 1939, in Laconia, NH, to Mary (Way) and Randolph Morrison. Mary’s father died when she was young so Mary’s mother worked long and grueling hours in factories to ensure that Mary and her brothers and sister had life’s necessities. Having dropped out of middle school to go to work herself, Mary’s mother was adamant that Mary and her siblings go to school every day. Mary learned at a very early age the value of thrift and hard work, and that education could potentially provide a way out of a hand-to-mouth existence.
Mary attended Laconia schools and during her school years she was involved in the Glee Club, athletic clubs, and band, where she played the French horn. Her beauty and poise earned her first place in a Beauty Contest her sophomore year, as well as the attentions of a short-order cook at the Weirs Beach Howard Johnson’s where she worked. Upon her graduation from LHS, Mary attended UNH but left in 1959 to marry her husband, the former short-order cook and now Johns Hopkins University graduate, Norman C. VanderNoot. They were married for 43 years until Norman’s death in 2002.
Through the first ten years of marriage Mary and Norman spent short stints in NYC, VT, and CT, and a number of NH locations before settling back in Laconia in 1970 where they remained, with the exception of a brief move to Bretton Woods in 1982, until her death. During the ensuing years, as she gave birth to two sons and two daughters she never lost sight of her education goals, eventually graduating from NHTI in 1985. After earning her degree, she worked in law offices and real estate offices and became a Notary and Justice of the Peace. In the 1980s, she accepted a position with the NH State Department of Education (DOE), working for 10 years to further promote the value of education mostly in relation to special education grants, before her retirement from the workforce in the 1990s.
Mary’s focus on education continued even after her retirement from the DOE. In the late 1990s she became involved with the Lakes Region Scholarship Foundation (LRSF), establishing the Mary L. Morrison Memorial scholarship after the death of her mother, and later, after the death of her husband, the Norman C. and Mary M. VanderNoot Award. Through the years Mary became more involved with the LRSF first in reviewing and selecting for the family awards, then expanding to broader application review duties, and finally serving as a member of the Board and helping to organize and run the annual charity Spelling Bee.
Mary loved traveling with her husband and going to the local symphony and drama productions, She spent much of her free time reading, doing word searches, shopping the“sale(s)” at JC Penny’s or Kohls, crocheting, caning chairs, watching the weather on the news (so she could warn her children of potential weather disasters), and later visiting grandchildren. She is well-remembered for her thrifty liver and onion, tuna squiggle, and chewy meatloaf dinners, and ensuring all meat was cooked well-done to prevent any of her offspring from getting worms. While not the type of grandmother to bake cookies with her grandchildren, she loved them all dearly. She enjoyed sharing a chair with them to read a book, attending their theatre productions and band concerts,and freely offering them pointed guidance on how to better themselves.She never lost site of the value of education or getting the most bang for her buck and will be greatly missed by the many loved ones she leaves behind.She loved well and was well loved.
Mary is survived by sons Matthew, Christopher and wife Mary, daughters Jennifer VanderNoot and husband James Heath, and Stacy McNulty and husband Tim, grandchildren Christine and husband Dan, Parker, Abigail, Caitlyn, Molly, Natalie, and Meghan and great-grandchildren Cullen, Josie, and Hazel, brother Randy Morrison and wife Mary, sister-in-law Betty Morrison, nieces Cindy, Tori, Melissa, and Alicia, and nephews Andy, Ted (Van), Nathan, Zachary, Walter, and Carl. She is predeceased by her husband Norman C. VanderNoot, mother Mary Morrison, sister Medora, brother Zane, nephew David, and niece Bettina.
A memorial service will be held at 12:30pm on Sunday, October 2, 2016 at the Wilkinson-Beane-Simoneau-Paquette Funeral Home , 164 Pleasant Street, Laconia NH.
A private burial will be held in the family plot at Bayside Cemetery in Laconia at a later date.
For those who wish, the family suggests memorial contributions may be made to the Norman C. and Mary M. VanderNoot Award C/O Lakes Region Scholarship Foundation,PO Box 7312, Gilford NH 03247-7312 (or online at http://www.lrscholarship.org/)
Wilkinson-Beane-Simoneau-Pauquette Funeral Home & Cremation Services, 164 Pleasant Street, Laconia, N.H. is assisting the family with the arrangements. For more infoprmation and to view an online memorial please visit www.wilkinsonbeane.com.