Judy Blackstone

CARIBOU – Judy Blackstone, 80, of Caribou died on Sept. 20, 2019, at the Woodlands Memory Care Unit in Waterville.

She was born on Dec. 22, 1938 in Augusta and lived with her parents Gordon W. and Amelia Dudley Alcott in Winthrop. She was a graduate of Winthrop High School, after which she attended Westbrook Junior College, earning an Associate degree in Business, 1959.

After working for the Central Intelligence Agency in Washington, D.C., Judy returned to Maine and worked for several businesses in Augusta, including Farm Family Insurance where she met an aspiring Insurance Agent, Vernon A. Blackstone of Caribou. They were married on Sept. 1, 1961, and moved to Orono where Vernon was a student at the University of Maine. After his graduation, the couple lived in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut, where Judy raised her two sons and worked as a secretary in the Marlborough (CT) School District. In 1975, they built a home on the site of the former Blackstone Dairy Farm on Old Washburn Rd. in Caribou, where Vernon established a financial planning business.

Judy returned to school and graduated from the University of Maine at Presque Isle with a B.S. in Elementary Education (1981), followed by a Master’s in Education from the University of Southern Maine (1988) and a Master’s in Educational Counseling from the University of Maine in Orono (1992). She worked as a primary teacher in the Caribou School Department and as a middle school guidance counselor in Washburn and Presque Isle. She was an active member of Gray Memorial United Methodist Church in Caribou, a soloist and choir member, and chair of the Music Committee. She also attended Grant Memorial United Methodist Church in Presque Isle during her son Thom’s tenure there as Pastor.

Her oil paintings of local subjects won many ribbons over the years at the Northern Maine Fair. She was a 4-H leader, Cub Scout Den Mother, and shared her husband’s love of Airedale dogs. She enjoyed travel to New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, the Bahamas, and Scotland, and did an educational exchange with a primary school in Leicester, England.

Following her retirement and Vernon’s death in 2011, Judy moved to be with her sons in Shirley and Augusta, where she continued to sing in choir and at hymn sings at Granite Hills Estates in Hallowell.

She was predeceased by her husband Vernon; and an infant brother Jonathan. She is survived by her brother Ladd G. Alcott of Mesquite, Nev.; her sons’ families Thomas and Lynn Blackstone of Waterville, and Jon and Dawna Blackstone of Shirley; five grandchildren, Ian and Wyatt of Shirley, Alexander of Northport, Patrick of Bloomington, Ind. and Laura of Waterville; and sisters-in-law Joyce Churchill (Ft. Fairfield), Phyllis Blackstone (Brunswick), and Cathy Blackstone (Augusta).

A celebration of her life will be held at the East Winthrop (Maine) Cemetery on Turtle Run Rd. at 11 a.m. on Saturday, Oct. 12, followed by a reception at Green Street United Methodist Church, 13 Green St., Augusta.

Arrangements are in the care of Knowlton and Hewins Funeral Home, One Church St., Augusta where condolences may be sent to the family on the obituary page of the website Familyfirstfuneralhomes.com

Gifts in her memory

can be made to the

Alzheimer’s Foundation

of America

322 8th Ave.

16th Floor

New York, NY 10001