CHATHAM, N.J. – Priscilla Aveline Marble James, 84, passed away on March 6, at the Garden Terrace Nursing Home in Chatham, N.J. She had been suffering from Alzheimer’s disease for many years.

She was born in Lewiston on Oct. 14, 1923, to Ilda Sewall Marble and Dwight Fitzgerald Marble of Auburn. Prissy, as she was affectionately known by her family, was predeceased by her brother, Richard Marble, and her sister, Betty Burke.

She attended Edward Little High School in Auburn. She may have appeared to most as an ordinary secretary, shopkeeper, mother and wife, but on that humble path, she touched and inspired greatness in all of those around her including state and national leaders.

After her graduation in June 1941, she was a Red Cross representative who traveled to Washington, D.C., with former Sen. Margaret Chase Smith.

She married Francis Henry James in July, 1942, and during World War II worked for the B. Peck Co. in Lewiston. She returned to work in the 1960s for Avon and was a secretary for James Longley, later governor of Maine, at the Longley Insurance Agency in Lewiston. She and her husband ran the Freeport Variety Store from 1967 to 1977, where she took special pride in managing the greeting card section.

In their retirement she remained a business partner to her husband and a creative entrepreneur: many still recall stopping by Priscilla and Francis’ roadside stand in Durham for her homemade blackberry ice cream or the meals the two prepared at Oquossoc’s Gingerbread Restaurant.

Although only 4 feet 11 and needing a telephone book to reach the steering wheel of the family car, her presence and vitality loomed large in the community. She was a loving mother, good friend and neighbor, who even taught a young Olympia Snowe how to bake pies.

She loved music and dancing, played the piano and clarinet, and enjoyed sewing and knitting. She was active in neighborhood charitable activities. She instilled an appreciation of music and nature in her children and grandchildren, teaching them the names of all the birds and flowers she knew. These qualities did not fade until the very late stages of Alzheimer’s, when the cheerful sounds of big band music or a visit from the family dog could still elicit a response.

She is survived by her husband, Francis, of Bernardsville, N.J., and Oquossoc; her two children, Stephen Irwin James and his wife, Linda, of Freeport and Suzan Gail James Mitchell of Bernardsville, N.J.; seven grandchildren, Erik Mitchell and his wife, Maylene, Katie Mitchell Brooks and her husband, Ian, Rebecca Mitchell Snyder and her husband, Brian, Scott Mitchell, Ellen Mitchell, Jody James and his wife, Carie, and Jessica James; and one great-grandchild, Madeline Snyder.