Nancy Ludewig

Nancy Bates Ludewig
1944 - 2017
MONMOUTH - Nancy Bates Ludewig, 73, died Monday, Dec. 4, 2017, at Maine Medical Center in Portland of metastatic pancreatic cancer.
She was born on Oct. 27, 1944, at Central Maine General Hospital in Lewiston, the daughter of Harold and Leona (Dakin) Bates. She attended Monmouth Schools and graduated from Monmouth Academy in 1962. She took dancing lessons from Evelyn Dyer Clark for 12 years and performed in many dance reviews and productions during those years.
On August 11, 1962, she married Douglas Ludewig at the North Monmouth Community Church. They were married for 55 years. She attended Newark State Teachers College in New Jersey and graduated from the University of Maine in Orono with a BS in Elementary Education in 1968.
She began teaching at the Memorial School (now Cottrell School) in 1965 and taught for 44 years, retiring in 2009, having taught kindergarten for 10 years and 3rd grade for 34. She continually inspired students with her immense creativity and by writing songs, teaching dances, and directing original and unique drama productions in which she wrote the lyrics and scripts and had students perform them at Cumston Hall. She was the go-to person to lead a school assembly. She choreographed musicals directed by Don Auclair at Monmouth Academy. She taught disco and dance aerobic classes as part of an adult education program during that era.
She was instrumental in raising funds and town awareness of the need for an expansion of the Cumston Hall Library and one year had 20+ fund raisers for that purpose. She then chaired the committee that put on the annual May Faire fund raiser for Cumston Library for more than 20 years. At various times she was a president and was currently secretary of the Friends of Cumston Library and continued to organize numerous fund raisers for the group. She was also chairman of the Cumston Library Trustees for many years.
She organized and put on Spring Quilt Show fund raisers for the United Church of Monmouth during which historical artifacts and quilts from Monmouth Museum were displayed in the sanctuary of the United Church. She taught quilting classes at Cumston Hall and in the church's Packard Center for many years. She loved the Vestry and worked there every Wednesday afternoon for many years and loved to show off the beautiful clothes that she found there. She was a trustee of Monmouth Museum and worked with other trustees on the exhibits in the upstairs of the Carriage House. She also wrote articles, edited, and had published the Monmouth Museum Newsletter for several years. She organized the Chili and Chowder Challenge that raised funds for the Neighbors Helping Neighbors Fuel Assistance Program. She initiated putting the 25+ flower barrels downtown and for several years did it all; purchased the flowers and planted them and then watered them all summer long. She continued to maintain and water them even after Stevens Greenhouse took over planting the barrels. Hers was a life of community service. She worked energetically and tirelessly, sharing her many talents, giving back to the community, and loving all that she did. She thought constantly, it seemed, about ways to help, to make life better for others, and about how to do different projects. It was almost exhausting watching her almost continually thinking, planning, and doing. It was also this way when she was teaching and, after she retired from teaching and focused on the community and its organizations. This obituary is not adequate to tell about all she accomplished for Monmouth and its schools and the children she taught through the years. She leaves her husband, Doug; her daughter, Katherine; and grandchildren, Amelia and Finn Murphy; her brother Len Bates and his wife Grace, her brother Harold Bates; and multiple nieces and nephews.
A service will be held at Cumston Hall on Saturday, Dec. 9 at 11 a.m., with a reception at the Cottrell School following.
Arrangements are in the care of Roberts Funeral Home and Cremation Service, 62 Bowdoin St., Winthrop. Memories, condolences, photos, and videos may be shared with the family on the obituary page of our website at www.khrfuneralhomes.com