On September 11, 1909, the red-headed, hazel-eyed Margaret Alice Lane was born in her parent's home on Waverly Avenue in Watertown, Middlesex, Massachusetts. She was the first child of Henry Alexander Lane of Mahone Bay, Lunenburg, Nova Scotia and Margaret Agnes Nally of Watertown, Massachusetts.
Margaret related that her childhood was wonderful. She has fond memories of her family, friends, activities and schooling.
Early in life a tragedy occured. On July 30, 1914, Margaret's mother died from typhoid fever. Little Margaret was only four years old. A typhoid fever epidemic claimed the lives of many during this time period. Her father barely escaped death.
The memories of her mother are vague. She can visualize only three occasions that she was with her mother. The first occured when Margaret and her sister Dorothy had their tonsils and adnoids out. She remembers her mother close by while the girls sat in their highchairs. The second occured when her mother was bathing her sister Dorothy. She remembers seeing them in front of the stove. The third was when her mother died. Margaret relates the following story:
Margaret said that she had heard people talking about her mother's death. Nanny Stevenson, a relative of Margaret's mother who came from Ireland, took Margaret and her sister Dorothy for a walk to get away from the house until things settled down. Nanny Stevenson took the kids across the street and through a field. Margaret wanting to see her mother was able to get away. She returned to the house where she found a window opened which entered into the room where her mother lay dead. Margaret climbed through the window and viewed her mother laying on a gold blanket on the sofa. Afterwards, she proceeded to leave the room when one of the nurses, Edith Katherine Morrill, saw Margaret and exclaimed, "Margaret! What are you doing?" Unknown to Margaret, the nurse would later become her stepmother.
After the death of her mother, Margaret's aunt, Katherine Belle Lane, cared for Margaret, Dorothy (Dot) and Henry (Bud) while the children's father was working.
On April 19, 1915 Margaret's father, Henry Alexander Lane, married Edith Katherine Morrill. Edith had been her father and mother's nurse while they were fighting typhoid fever.
Some time before or after the marriage, Margaret's father was given an assignment by his employer to move to Islington, Massachusetts. The employer was having problems with some of his staff at the property and asked Henry to manage the affairs until the problems were resolved. It was in Islington that Margaret began her formal education. Her family later moved to Medfield, Massachusetts just before she enrolled in the third grade. She continued her education in Medfield until she graduated from Medfield High in 1927.
Margaret spent most of her childhood living in Medfield, Middlesex, Massachusetts. Her father purchased a home in Medfield. The house they lived in was large. It had five fireplaces, two very large bedrooms, servant quarters and a large Glenwood range. The house was one of three left standing on North Street from King Phillip's War. All three were left because they had wine cellars. The home was part of a 56 acre farm. Margaret's Uncle Bill and Aunt Olive Morrill lived in the servants quarters and helped her father with the farm. Bill Morrill was the brother of Margaret's stepmother. Margaret remembers going out on the milk route with her father in the morning before he took the train to Boston to work.
One evening Margaret's father told her that they wanted to move her into one of the large bedrooms. Margaret said it made her feel pretty important. She would come home from school and study her homework by the fire in her room.
Margaret expressed fond memories of the family horses and ponies. She said that her father gave each child a pony when they became old enough to ride. When they were older they were given a horse. She talked about one named Charlie. She said that Charlie was owned by a man who ran the "One Hundred and One Wild West Ranch Show". Charlie was a performing for the show. He had become very ill and more of a liability to the show than an asset. The director of the show gave the horse to Margaret's father with all of the equipment that the horse used in the show. Charlie did all sorts of tricks. He could dance, jump, kneel and stand on a pedistol. She says that he used to kneel down so Margaret could get on his back.
Margaret relates the following story about her grandfather Henry Stanley Lane:
"They were visiting (they meaning her grandfather Henry Stanley Lane, her grandmother Georgina Bridget and her aunt Florence Olive). Every year they came up usually for the Christmas Holiday. This time my aunt Florence was with them. I got home from school and grandpa was sound asleep in the chair in the dining room. He never shaved in his life so he always had this long white beard. In fact, whenever he came up at Christmas time, he, grandma and the barrels of goodies that they would bring, he was known as Santa Claus on the ship.
Grandpa was sound asleep and aunt Florence decided that his beard was kind of scraggley. She thought that she would kind of like to fix it so that it would look nice. She enlisted my help and wanted to know if I knew where there was any hair pins. I said, "Yes! I have some little black ones." And she said, "That would be allright." She just wanted to pin it up so she could cut it. She got it pinned up. It didn't look too bad. She went and got the scissors and had them in her hand ready to cut it and he happened to wake up and he said, "Oh! What are you little villans up to now?" Then he happened to put his hand on his beard and he soon found out. I don't know what would had happened if we had done it.
In the autumn of 1927, Margaret left home ato attend an all girls Catholic College located in Hookset, New Hampshire called "Mount Saint Mary's". She attended the college for two years majoring in secraterial skills. She graduated second in the class of 1929.
During her first year at college her family moved to Charlotte, Chittenden, Vermont. Her father purchased a farm from their uncle Joe Bora. Just before the move to Charlotte, her family had moved from Medfield to a home located in Allston, Massachusetts. Margaret spent the summer between her first and second year of college in Charlotte.
In 1930, Margaret married Clement William Thompson of Shelburne, Chittenden, Vermont. Margaret relates the following story of how they met:
"I corresponded with his (Clem's) sister Agnes for three years before I ever knew that she had a brother. I met Agnes when she had been up to grandma Morrill's during the summer. On this occasion, Agnes heard I was home. It was between my two years of college. She wanted to come down to see me. She asked her brother Dick to bring her down. Dick was busy so Clem said he would bring her down. He brought her down and in three nights he was back again to visit all by himself. That's how it started. He must had taken a liking to the red-head."
Clem and Margaret lived together on their farm located in Shelburne, Vermont. They had two children: Clement Lane born December 24, 1930 and Michael Henry born August 15, 1943.
Margaret enjoyed farm life. She said, "I went down once to learn to milk the cows so I could help Clem because he had quite a herd. I couldn't get any milk out of the cow so I gave up. Clem said, "I guess your place is up at the house". So there I stayed thereafter. I didn't try it again. I had plenty to do at the house because we raised everything to eat."
Margaret did a lot of baking, especially with the Thompson sister and Thompson brothers there. Every weekend they would be down to eat some home-baked things.
On November 11, 1948 her husband Clem died from a case of severe hypertension leaving Margaret a widow at the age of 39.
Shortly after Clem's death, a gentleman by the name of Wayne Winslow Shadrick began paying friendly visits. Wayne was in the garage business with his father. He had first met Margaret when he had sold Clem a couple of trucks for the farm. Margaret thought Wayne was only being friendly when he visited, but little did she know that Wayne had more on his mind.
On April 29, 1950 Wayne and Margaret were married in Vergennes, Vermont. They moved into a home that they had bought located at 22 Church Street in Bristol, Vermont.
Through the years Margaret worked as a news correspondent for the Bristol Herald, Burlington Daily & Sunday News, Burlington Free Press and the Rutland Herald. Also worked as an Avon Representative. She was a member of the Catholic Women's Club and the Telephone Committee. She was a member of the Outlook Club and the Catholic Church. She sang from time to time at weddings and in her youth participated in a play.
Margaret enjoyed dancing, singing and cooking. She didn't do a lot of dancing and singing in her latter years; however, she still enjoyed cooking. She recalled that her husband Clem used to be a beautiful dancer. She said that they would go to banquets and from time to timeClem would win a trophey for dancing. They had a piano that could be played and would play by itself. Friends would come down to the house to visit. They would eat and dance late into the night and continue until the sun came up in the morning.
Later in life Margaret suffered many of the ailments that accompany growing old. She had arthritis in the knee and hip and had an ulcer in her left ankle. She was unable to get outside much and spent most of her time in the house.
Margaret and Wayne were unable to care for themselves during the last years of their lives. They moved to the Starr Farm Nursing Home located in Burlington, Vermont. Wayne died at the Fletcher Allen Health Care on September 3, 1997. Margaret followed Wayne almost three years later dying at the Starr Farm Nursing Home on the 8th of May 2000.
Clem worked as a milk tester, farmer, butter maker and worked for the State Highway Department of Vermont.
The following is a obituary listed in a newspaper:
BRISTOL - Wayne W. Shadrick, 89, died Wednesday Sept. 3, 1997 in Fletcher Allen Health Care in Burlington.
He was born on March 20, 1908 in New Haven, the son of Ralph and Alice (Warner) Shadrick.
Wayne was a member of Bristol Libanus Lodge #47 F. & A.M. He previously owned Shadrick Motor in Bristol. He was employed at Park Filling Station for many years.
Wayne is survived by his wife Margaret (Lane) Shadrick of Bristol; his son Robert Shadrick of California; his daughter, Linda Shadrick of California; two stepsons and their wives, Clement and Elizabeth Thompson of Shelburne, Michael and Carol Thompson of Milton; seven grandchildren, seven great-grandchildren; a sister Ethel Brown of Essex Junction; and by several nieces and nephews. Wayne was predeceased by a brother Wayne Shadrick.
A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated Saturday at 10 a.m. in St. Ambrose Catholic Church in Bristol. Interment will be in Greenwood Cemetery in Bristol. Friends may call in the Brown-McClay Funeral Home.
Heather Lyn Gibbons, grandaughter to Dorothy, said the following:
"I actually remember when she was being tested for Alzheimers Disease, even though I was only three. I remember that we were in a small room off a large waiting area, and the woman asked her what day it was and who the president was. Though I didn't know what it was all about at the time, I remember knowing that something major was going on. And so it was, she had the disease and would soon decline in mental capacity though her physical health was good. My mom dedicated her life to caring for her at home, and she was glad to do it. The day she passed away, after not uttering a word for approximately 10 years, she called out for her mother. That was something that brought us comfort after she had aged in a state that seemed so unfair.
While I didn't have the opportunity to know my Nanny in the way that could have been, I have come to know her through the eyes and hearts of family and our neighbors. Apparently, she was something of a living saint, so kind and loving and always reaching out to neighbors and whomever. She would actually make big batches of cookies for the neighborhood, something that I later took up to keep her legacy going."
Heather Lyn Gibbons, grandaughter to Harold, had the following to say about her grandfather:
"My grandpa and I had a very special bond. I have often said that I could live a thousand years, transverse the world over and love again and again and over again, but I will never find that same kind-of love that I shared with my grandpa. It's been 7 years since he's been gone and I still miss him so much I can feel it deep in the pit of my stomach. I know that part of what contributed to the bond we had was his sadness and regret that I didn't have my grandmother in the way that she would have wanted to be there for me or in the way that he felt I deserved."
The following is an obituary as printed in the Sunday Boston Globe December 25, 1994:
Harold Gibbons, 88 - Retired Boston Patrolman - Harold M. Gibbons, a retired Boston police officer, died Friday after a long battle with cancer. He was 88. Mr. Gibbons was born in Digby, Nova Scotia, where he received his education, and moved to the United States when he was 17. He had lived in Brighton for the past 50 years.
Mr. Gibbons served in the Army during World War II. He retired from the police force in 1972 after 30 years of service, 25 of which were spent patroling the Faneuil Hall and Dock Square areas.
He leaves a son, Harold L. Gibbons of Brighton, a member of the Watertown Auxiliary Police Department; and two grandchildren. The funeral will be held Tuesday at 10 a.m. in Donald J. MacDonald Funeral Home in Watertown. Burial will be in Washington Street Cemetery in Norwell.
The following is the obituray of Marion as listed in a newspaper:
Marion J. Lane - CHARLOTTE - Marion J. Lane died at home Sept. 20, 1991, after a long illness. She was born in Charlotte on June 17, 1918, the daughter of Guy M. and Amelia E. Williams.
She is survived by her husband of 55 years, Henry J. Lane, of Charlotte; her sister, Mildred H. Williams of South Burlington; two sons, James H. and his wife, Janet C., and Stanley P. and his wife, Gayle, all of Charlotte; four grandchildren, John H. and his wife, Linda Lane, Judy and her husband, David Gladding, and Gary Lane and Virginia Lane. She was devoted to her family and will be greatly missed by them.
In accordance with her wishes, there will be no visiting hours. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Visiting Nurse Association, 284 East Ave., Burlington 05401. Asmall, private memorial service is planned. Burial will be at the convenience of the family. Corbin and Palmer is in charge of arrangements.