Mary MacBride died at Ocean View retirement community in Falmouth June 5, 2016 at the age of 100, after a long life and a long political career in her native Aroostook County.
Gov. Paul LePage directed that state flags in Presque Isle be flown at half-staff from sunrise to sunset last Thursday in honor of the former lawmaker.
Born in Blaine in 1916, MacBride served eight two-year terms in the Maine House representing Blaine, Bridgewater, Presque Isle, Westfield and several unorganized territories, from 1978 to 1994.
MacBride followed in a tradition of Aroostook County stateswomen, starting with Republican Dora Pinkham of Fort Kent, who in 1922 was the first Maine woman elected to the state legislature.
“At first many people in my district were questioning if they wanted a woman in Augusta, but my constituents have sent me back each time with a large margin,” MacBride said in a 1989 Bangor Daily News story on Maine’s female lawmakers, who constituted 31 percent of the legislature at the time (about the same as today).
MacBride was raised in Blaine and Mars Hill by parents Gladys and Stetson Hussey, a state representative and senator. “We always talked a lot about politics when I was growing up,” she recalled.
MacBride graduated from Wheaton College in 1939 and married Milt MacBride of Easton in 1942, while he was enlisted in the Army during World War II, according to an obituary.
After the war, they moved to Presque Isle, where they had a potato farm and raised a son and daughter. After her husband died in 1975, with her children older, MacBride was looking to enter the workforce.
She had worked as a teacher, but took the advice of some Republican friends to run for public office. “I gradually decided that I would be interested, so I ran against an outstanding man and beat him,” she said in the 1989 article.
U.S. Senator Susan Collins said MacBride was an active, happy person and tireless advocate for her region.
“Mary was a great friend to me and to so many, and her love and joy for others were evident in her cheerfulness, enthusiasm, and public service,” Collins said in a statement.
