Verna Grover Thayer

West Paris-Verna Grover Thayer, 94, of Mason Township passed away on Wednesday, January 23 at Ledgeview Living Center. She was born in Mason Township on August 25, 1918 the third of 11 children to Eli Arthur Grover and Ella Garey Grover. Verna graduated from Gould Academy in 1936. She married George D. Thayer, lived in South Paris and operated the Norway Home Bakery from mid 1940's until the late 1960's. The Bakery was on Main Street in Norway. Verna and Dewey used to give leftover bakery goods to family members still on the farm both for people and the pigs. She lived in Port Clyde, Maine from 1968 until 1983, while she worked as a legal secretary for Strout, Payson and Pelicani in Rockland, while Dewey was town manager for Tenants Harbor, Maine. Verna retired back to Mason Township in 1984 and lived there until she moved to Ledgeview in West Paris in 2009. She and Dewey spent several winters in Florida where they stayed with sister-in-law, Dorothy Grover.
Verna was a very good bridge player and played in several bridge clubs in the Bethel area. She loved card games of all kinds. She was a member of the West Bethel Union Church, the Pleasant Valley Grange (West Bethel), and a lifetime member of the Order of the Eastern Star and served as Worthy Matron in Tenants Harbor. She always helped other members of the family, giving of her time and money when she had some. She grew up on a hardscrabble farm in Mason; and as a teenager worked summers as housekeeper for the Hastings Farm in Gilead. She used part of her earnings to buy school clothing for her 8 younger brothers and sisters. She was predeceased by her brothers, Paul, Walter, Rupert, Ernest, Howard, Robert and Ralph Grover; her husband George "Dewey" Thayer; her son Ernest Powers Thayer; and grandson Gregory Ernest Thayer. She is survived by brothers, Stanley and Richard Grover; her sister, Margaret "Peggy" Perham; her son, Charles Thayer; her grandchildren, Scott Thayer, Steve Thayer, Tracyn Thayer, Darren Thayer, Matt Thayer and Michael Thayer; her great grandchildren, Bonnie Thayer, Jessica Gowen, Justin Thayer, Shannon Thayer, Maya Thayer, Alexandria Thayer, Dylan Greenberg, Jackson Thayer, Izaac Greenberg, Brooklyn Thayer and Madison Thayer; and great great grandchildren, Gabriel Gowen, Grace and Gretta Beckard and Audrey Shafer.

Services will be held in the spring, time and date to be announced. Arrangements are under the direction of Chandler Funeral Homes & Cremation Service, Greenleaf Chapel, 37 Vernon St., Bethel.