1920 – 2003
TOGUS – Earl “Shag” A. Fraser, a native of Rangeley, died April 28, at Togus, where he was a patient.
Born in Rangeley, Jan. 22, 1920, the son of William and Iris (Stewart) Fraser, Shag graduated from Rangeley High School in 1937.
He was a Cub Scout and Boy Scout leader and a member of the following organizations: Rangeley Logging Museum, Rangeley Historical Society, American Legion Post No. 120, Disabled American Veterans Association, American Ex-Prisoners of War and Survivors of Bataan and Corigador.
He was postmaster of Rangeley for 35 years and five years as code enforcement officer for Rangeley.
“Shag” enlisted in the U.S. Army with his cousin, Ardine “Barney” Doak in 1940 and was stationed in the Philippines prior to the outbreak of World War II. He was a survivor of the Bataan Death March and was held as a prisoner of war for three years and four months. He was discharged from the Army following hospitalization in 1946.
He later became active in the service again and helped form a heavy weapons company and trained at Camp Drum, Watertown, N.Y. He was also a member of the National Postal Association and Maine Postmasters Pine Cone. He was a member of the Episcopal Church and was on the vestry of the Church of the Good Shepherd in Rangeley.
He made the 9 x 12 free standing redwood cross in the Church of the Good Shepherd in memory of his cousin, Ardine Doak and all those on the Bataan Death March.
He enjoyed hunting, fishing, gardening, going to yard sales and collecting meat grinders and old tools. He was married to Winifred M. Raymond in 1946 and they were married 53 years until her death in 2000. They had two children, a son, Kimball Fraser, who died in 1997 and a daughter, Earlene Fraser.
He is survived by his daughter, Earlene Fraser of Lewiston; two sisters, Ruth Howatt of Farmington and Beatrice Searls of Portsmouth, N.H.; two grandchildren, Sarah Fraser and Seth Fraser of Dresden; and many cousins, nieces and nephews.
He will be missed by the Clover Pre-School and his many friends and staff at Clover Living Center, where he had been a resident for the past two and a half years.
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