PORTLAND – Elizabeth “Betty” Louise Chadburn Field, 67, a longtime educator at Cony High School, died Friday, March 25, following a lengthy illness. Her husband and children were at her bedside at the end.

Born June 3, 1937, in Greene, she was the daughter of Oliver and Thelma (Perkins) Chadburn. Her brother, James Chadburn, was born on Christmas Day 1944.

She was raised on a farm in Greene, attended public schools in Greene and Auburn and graduated with a Bachelor’s degree from Bates College in Lewiston in 1958.

She later earned her Master’s degree in education from the University of Southern Maine.

She married Percy Field of Greene on Aug. 23, 1958, and they had two children – Catherine, born in 1959, and Tom, born in 1963.

A high school educator throughout her career, Betty started out as a math teacher at Cony in the fall of 1958. She taught adult education part-time in Augusta throughout the 1960s, as she raised her young children and then returned to Cony full-time as an English teacher in 1969. She then taught at Cony for 27 consecutive years, serving as an English department head for her last 10 years, before retiring in 1996. In all, Betty spent parts of five decades, from the 1950s through the 1990s, teaching in the Augusta school system.

Upon retirement, she was active as a writer, community volunteer and grandmother. She published two books of poetry in 2004, served as a volunteer guide at the Maine State Museum, and was active in numerous education organizations, including the Kennebec Retired Teachers and Delta Kappa Gamma Society International, of which she served as chapter president from 1982 to 1984 and 1994 to 1996. She served as president of the group’s state organization, Alpha Psi State, from 2002 to 2004 and was immediate past president at the time of her death.

She is survived by her husband, Percy, of Augusta; daughter, Catherine and her husband, Shawn Barclay, of Fayette; son, Tom and his wife, Cindy Riveglia Field, of Stratham, N.H.; brother, James Chadburn and his wife, Lena, of Farmingdale; stepsisters, Eileen Foley of Toledo, Ohio and Margaret Algazi of Davis, Calif.; six grandchildren; two great-grandchildren; and many uncles, aunts, nieces, nephews and cousins.

She was predeceased by her mother, Thelma, who died in 1956; stepmother, Edie, who died in 1987; and father, Oliver, who died in 1994.