Lucrecia Morales Gilman

PHIPPSBURG – Lucrecia Morales Gilman, 91, of Main Road, Phippsburg died peacefully in Brunswick on Oct. 10, 2025, with her loving family by her side.

Lucrecia was born in Progreso, Yucatan, Mexico on June 2, 1934, the daughter of the late Alfredo Amílcar Morales Mena and María Magdalena Pérez Encalada. She was educated in local schools, earning her college degree in elementary and secondary education from the Escuela Normal Urbana “Roldolfo Menéndez de la Peña” in Merida, Mexico.

After meeting her future husband through mutual friends in New York, Lucrecia moved to the United States and married James W. Gilman at the Small Point Church in Phippsburg on Jan. 2, 1970. Together they made their home, ran a small seasonal business, and raised their family there.

Besides her family, her ultimate passion was teaching. She began teaching French and other subjects in all grade levels and in adult education programs in Mexico. For five decades, from 1972-2019, she taught Spanish as a tutor and as a substitute and full-time teacher in schools and adult education programs across mid-coast Maine, including Morse High School, Phippsburg Elementary School, Bailey Evening School, Bath Junior High, Bath and Brunswick elementary schools, Merrymeeting Adult Education, and The Deck House School. She not only loved teaching Spanish, but loved sharing Mexican culture—especially its food, music, and traditions—with her students.

During the summer months, Lucrecia and James ran Hidden Mountain Cottages and Gift Shop until his death in 2001. Then, she continued running the business by herself for two decades. Perhaps more than running the business itself, she loved the opportunity it provided her to meet travelers from other states, Canada, and countries around the world.

She had a great love of the arts and music. She frequently attended concerts and musicals at the Chocolate Church in Bath, Maine State Music Theater at Bowdoin College, and venues in Portland. In her early years in Maine, she painted beautiful oil paintings. She took great care of and enjoyment in lovely plants and flower around her house and business. She also loved to travel—mostly back home to Mexico to visit family—but she also made trips to Canada, Japan, and Turkey.

Lucrecia was predeceased by her husband, James, in 2001; and by three brothers, Odelín, Amílcar, and Roberto, and a sister, Maritza.

She is survived by two sons, Alexis Gilman, and his wife Michele Buenafe, of McLean, Va., and Anthony Gilman, and his wife Jennifer, of Phippsburg; four grandchildren, Anson and Iris Gilman of McLean, Va., and Zoey and Hunter Gilman of Phippsburg; two stepchildren, Patricia Staples of Phippsburg and James J. Gilman of Phippsburg; three sisters, Nora Morales de Saloma, and her husband Luis Samuel Saloma, of Mexico City, Mexico, Marlene Morales Pérez of Celaya, Mexico, and Magda Judith Morales de Contreras, and her husband Ismael Contreras Plata, of Mexico City, Mexico; and numerous nieces, nephews, and their children from around Maine and Mexico, all of whom she adored.

The family will hold a Celebration of Life on Friday, Nov. 7, from 4 to 6 p.m., with a time of sharing to begin at 4:30 p.m., at Stetson’s Funeral Home, 12 Federal St., Brunswick. Attendees are invited to wear bright colors in honor of Lucrecia. For those who cannot attend in person, there will be a live stream of the time of sharing, go to the Stetson Funeral Home website https://my.gather.app/remember/Lucrecia-Gilman

Condolences, memories, and photos may be shared with the family on the obituary page of the Stetson’s Funeral Home website http://www.StetsonsFuneralHome.com.

In lieu of flowers, Lucrecia would have appreciated donations to the Phippsburg Fire & Rescue Department or Doctors Without Borders.