Obituary

Louise M. Royall

Tue, 06/02/2015 - 9:45am

Louise Mackenzie Royall, 89, of East Boothbay, died June 1, 2015. She left while surrounded by family and in sight of the sea.

Louise was born June 23, 1925, to Donald Mackenzie and Louise Floyd Wickham in Flushing, New York. Educated at the Foxwood School in Flushing, she graduated The Masters School in Dobbs Ferry, New York, in 1942 and attended Finch Junior College in Manhattan before going to Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts.

A lifelong lover of the arts, Louise spent 10 years working for the Metropolitan Opera Guild in New York City. It was a job she adored, in part because it offered summers off, time she used to travel.

In November 1955 Louise married Samuel Booth. Booth died in a plane crash the following year. Louise and Booth had a son, Samuel Babcock Booth III, who died before he reached adulthood.

Following the death of her husband, Louise moved to Maine, where she met Robert LeGrand Royall. The two were married on Dec. 29, 1960, and Louise moved to Royall Road, her home for the next 55 years. There she raised two boys, William and Robert, and offered wine, warmth, spirited dinners and no-nonsense advice to anyone lucky enough to walk through her door.

One of her great joys was that she settled in Maine: a home by the ocean, the smell of the salt air, the view along the Front Beach, a walk she took often with friends or her Australian shepherd Malcolm. She never slowed, even into her final months, volunteering for the local Meals on Wheels program and at the St. Andrews Hospital Auxiliary Thrift Shop. Her energy, wit and spirit seemed eternal, even after she was diagnosed with terminal cancer. In the end she left on her own terms, just as she lived.

Louise is survived by her sons, William and his wife Shirley Maxwell of Cape Elizabeth, and Robert and his fiancée Nora Myshrall of East Boothbay; her three granddaughters: Jessica, of Belmont, Massachusetts, Victoria, of Portland, and Cayden, of Cape Elizabeth, and a large extended family. She was predeceased by her husband Robert.

A funeral service in celebration of Louise’s life will be held at Boothbay Harbor Congregational Church on June 13 at 2 p.m., with a reception to follow at The Gallery on Route 96.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Lincoln County Animal Shelter, P.O. Box 7, 27 Atlantic Highway, Edgecomb, ME 04556.

You are welcome to share condolences and memories for the family at www.hallfuneralhomes.com

Services are entrusted to Hall's of Boothbay, 975 Wiscasset Road, Boothbay.