MONIQUE CHAMBERLIN SPALDING

1936 - 2018

SPALDING, Monique Chamberlin Monique Chamberlin Spalding, 82, died August 26, 2018 after a brief illness at Mount Auburn Hospital. A lifelong Cambridge resident, Monique grew up on Channing Street, the only child of Edward Chamberlin, of Iowa City, and Lucienne Chamberlin, of Normandy, France. Monique attended Shady Hill School, class of 1950, the Winsor School, class of 1953, and Radcliffe, class of 1957. In 1958 she earned a masters in music education from Harvard. In subsequent years she taught music education at Lesley, and in schools around Boston. In 1960, she married Oakes Ames Spalding, Jr. of Hartford, Connecticut. Together, in their house on Gurney Street, they raised three children and lived happily. Monique was the center of her house and family, a loving mother and grandmother, and a warm and gracious host to innumerable friends of hers and her children's for decades. She started a bed and breakfast after her children went to college. Sitting at her kitchen table, which opened on the street, some neighbors came to call her the "Mayor of Gurney Street." She raised her children in Christmas carols, Gilbert and Sullivan and Broadway musicals. She loved to read the newspaper and watch the news, and her thank-you letters, as well as occasional letters of complaint, were legendary. She is survived by three children and eight grandchildren. Her son Oakes Ames Spalding, III and his wife, Julie Vollgraff, live in Chicago, with their children Lydia, Oliver, Crispin and Edmund Spalding. Her daugher Lucienne Spalding Schroepfer, and her husband, William, live in St. Paul, MN, with their children Otto, Guillemette and Cecilia Schroepfer. Her son Timothy Edward Spalding and his wife, Lisa Carey, live in Portland, Maine, with their son Liam Spalding. She is also survived by a number of beloved cousins in France. Her husband, Oakes, died in 2016. There will be a funeral mass on September 15, 10 am, at St. Paul Catholic Church in Cambridge, MA, followed by burial at Mount Auburn Cemetery, and a reception at Monique's home at 15 Gurney Street, Cambridge. The St. Paul Choir School's children's choir, which Monique loved, will sing at her mass.

View the online memorial for Monique Chamberlin SPALDING