Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1922-03-06

birds and flowers had a new and
lasting meaning to them. She was
interested in school athletics and
joined with her young people in cele-
brating the hard won victories and
talking over the defeats. Many a
down hearted lad has Strengthened
his shoulders and the sparkle has re-
turned to his eye, at the word Oh
commentator that came from her,
telling him that she Thought he had
done his best. The spirit of fairness
that today prevails in Gardiner High
is due more to the influence of Miss
Richards than to all other things
combined.
Her activities were by no means
confined to her school. Whatever
movement having the spirit of upliit
in it that was started in this COM
munity, had her prompt and unqual-
ified approval and her ready assist
ance. She was an active member of
Heath Relief Corps, of the Gardiner
Red Cross Chapter, the District
Nurse Association, the Parent
Teacher Association, the Gardiner
Library Association, Humane Society
and the Improvement Society. Loyal
to her many friends ard her home
city. she leaves an impress on the
lives of young and old that time can
neither mar nor dim.
Miss Richards was born in Boston
in 1872. coming TO Gardiner four
years later. She studied piano in
Boston for two years under Arthur
Foote. was for two years at Miss
Capens school at Northampton, and
graduated from Smith college in
1885. She began teaching in the
Gardiner High school the next year
and. in spite of many and adNan-
tageous offers of positions elsewhere.
never changed her purpose to have
her whole life-W work in Gardiner.
No one but those OF her own fam
lily can know how sleepless was her
interest in her beloved scholars.
Day in and day out. in holiday and
term time, their welfare, their work
ana play filled her heart and mind.
She expended herself to enrich their
reading into always more of the
worlds treasures of heroic literature,
If her boys" were playing another
team, no matter how far away; If
some of her children were i'll. on
eagements were cast aside and no
fatigue kept her from being with
them. And not only the school the
welfare of the whole city was in her
heart. She worked for it with her
splendid strength, as for her very
own.
All through her illness the school
was foremost in her mind and heart.
Il want to get up and 20 to school
she said repeatedly, even during the
last night.
1t was a wonderful happiness for
her that, through the great generoS-
ity of its friends. the new High
school, her hope for many years, was
completed; and she had six months
of most happy work in II. She car
ried the school play through to its
success( O great happiness to her,
as always and then, still in undim-
med strength, unfalterlng through
her last short battle of illness, this
good soldier laid down her arms.
Deceased was the daughter of Mr.
and Mrs. Henry Richards and q
granddaughter of the late Julia Ward
Howe Beside her father and mother,
there survive three sisters, Mss
Rosalind. of Gardiner; Mrs. Garlic
ton a. Shaw of Groton, Mass; Mrs.
Charles Wiggin of Boston: two
brothers, Henry Howe Richards Of
Groton, Mass, and John Richards Of
Concord, Mass.
Funeral services will he held on
Tuesday forenoon at 1880 o'clock at
Christ church.