Living life on her own terms to the end, Mary Kathleen Sullivan passed away Saturday on a golden Maine summer afternoon. With high blue skies above and open roads ahead, she set out—radio cranked, drinks in the back, car filled with beloved family and friends—on her last great adventure.

Born in Harrisonburg, Virginia, July 1938, Kathleen grew up in Gardiner, Maine, which she always considered her hometown. She graduated from Gardiner High School in 1955 and from the University of Maine at Orono in 1959 with a degree in psychology. In 1978, she earned a master’s degree in public administration from Antioch University New England. Her stories of reading at the Gardiner Public Library and growing up in Maine are magical memories for her daughters and friends.

Her work life was adventurous and full of experiments — she tried waitressing, retail, antique fine art sales, and real estate before eventually returning to social work in the state of Maine. She worked tirelessly advocating for people with disabilities, helping to create and discover ways to increase their independence in life.

She enjoyed long phone calls catching up with friends and exchanging emails with lifelong pals from Maine, South Carolina, and New Hampshire. She loved spending time with her “Fried Meat and Hard Liquor” club and her “Hair Support Group.” In her earlier years, she traveled across the United States, cruised to Bermuda, drove a stick shift in Ireland, and toured London and China. A friend once said “MK can charm the birds off the trees, when she chooses to.”

She loved jazz and classical music, well-told stories, and perfectly mixed cocktails. Her days began late with strong black coffee and a Mrs. Dunster’s donut. She lived for twenty years on Munjoy Hill in an apartment with the best views of Portland. Her flowers were always gorgeous — the result of deceptively simple gardening methods: “soak the pots through with water, deadhead the old blooms, and add a Jobe stick.” She had a natural green thumb, and everyone who visited her place marveled at her vibrant house plants.

Before she declared her “retirement from cooking,” she was known for her amazing double chocolate cake and a masterful Julia Child–style beef bourguignon, both often requested by her daughter and friends. A dedicated reader of all literary genres, she tackled reading Middlemarch for the first time in her early 80’s, just to make sure she hadn’t missed anything. Upon finishing it, she declared she had not.

She loved her cats and always had one in her life — Spot, a lovely tortoiseshell; Roxanne and Steve, two goofy Siamese siblings, and her last feline love, Handsome, a full-sized Maine Coon cat with the patience of a saint. Cats were important symbols in her life, and she was a lifelong supporter of the Animal Refuge League in Portland.

She spent her last birthday in her favorite recliner, enjoying Luke’s lobster rolls with her daughter and a friend.

She loved classic movies, Saturday afternoon double-features, and nearly every British mystery series. She had an uncanny ability to remember the names of actors from any TV show or film such that no one ever wanted to play the “Screen Edition” of Trivial Pursuit with her because she always won.

True to her Irish spirit, she took living independently to Olympic levels, never backed down from an argument, and insisted on being heard wherever she went.

She will not be quickly forgotten — and, most likely, she  finally has the thermostat set at the perfect temperature. 

She was predeceased by her daughter, Erin Raymond, and is survived by her daughter Megan Raymond and son-in-law Bradley Daigle, who live in Nova Scotia, Canada.

Donations can be made in her memory at Preble Street Kitchen https://www.preblestreet.org/… or Gardiner Public Library: https://gardinerpubliclibrary…

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