Family, friends, and members of the North Woolwich Methodist Church (NWMC) had planned to surprise a Wiscasset woman on her 90th birthday with a party at the church. As the day approached, the coronavirus pandemic became worse and the event was cancelled. Instead, Marilyn Bennett was feted with a family party at the home of her daughter, Glenice Ashton, on Lowell Town Road the afternoon of Saturday, March 14.
A decorated cake, a gift from Marilyn's niece and husband, Laureleen and David Jaynes, was cut by the guest of honor, and served along with sandwiches, salads, ice cream and other refreshments. She received a shower of cards, gifts, flowers, many phone calls and good wishes.
Marilyn and her brother, Hayden Temple of Woolwich, are considered the oldest living members of NWMC where they have attended services since they were small children. They are members of the Woolwich Partridge Cemetery Association where they have helped with the care of the cemetery over the years. She retired from volunteering in 2018 while Hayden (who will be 86 in April) continues to volunteer his services. She is secretary of the association.
Besides the church and PCA, she is a life member of the Woolwich Historical Society and the Guilford Historical Society; and a member of the Bath High School Alumni Association where she is agent for her graduating class of 1948 at Morse High School.
Born in Bath March 15, 1930, she grew up in North Woolwich. After graduating, Marilyn married Kermit C. Bennett of Guilford June 13, 1948. They lived in Guilford over 10 years where they had two children, Glenice and Kermit Craig Bennett. After the death of her mother, Florence Baker Temple in 1958, they moved back to Woolwich to live with her father, the late Albert E. Temple.
Marilyn became a reporter for the Bath Daily Times in 1959 and was there during the merger of the Times and the Brunswick newspaper when it became the Times Record. She took a hiatus in 1970 to join her husband as an over-the-road team semi-truck driver for Bekins Van Lines. She returned to the newspaper for a few months in 1971 before the Bennetts bought land and built a house in Elliottsville Plantation. Once settled in Elliottsville, Marilyn became county editor for the Piscataquis Observer, a weekly newspaper in Dover-Foxcroft. When the newspaper was sold to Northeast Publishing Co. a few years later, she was named managing news editor, a job she held until her retirement in 1995. She was active in the Guilford Historical Society during that time and served as first assessor for a few years before Elliottsville Plantation became unorganized territory.
After her husband died of cancer in 2006, Marilyn moved to Wiscasset where she has since made her home with her daughter. Before his death her husband had started to write the history of Elliottsville. In 2010 – the township's 175th anniversary – Marilyn finished writing the history and had it published that year. She continues to help with the upkeep of her daughter's lawn and gardens, likes driving her pickup truck, enjoys knitting and crocheting, keeps abreast of the family's genealogies which she compiled after retiring, and likes being busy. "Age is only a number," she said.
Besides her daughter, Glenice, who was hostess at the party, others attending included her son, Kermit Craig Bennett and his wife, Alexandra of Elliottsville; her brother, Hayden; and granddaughter, Melanie Ashton; and several great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren. Marilyn is the proud grandmother of three. She boasts of having eight great-grandchildren.
In a few days, she will have a total of seven great-great-grandchildren. "And, I never thought I would be 'great' at anything," she noted.
Marilyn Bennett of Lowell Town Road, Wiscasset, cuts her 90th birthday cake March 14. Courtesy of Glenice Ashton
