AUGUSTA – The Rev. Frances E. Porter, 82, a resident of MaineGeneral Rehabilitation and Nursing Care at Gray Birch Drive, passed away Wednesday, April 8, at MaineGeneral Medical Center.

She was born in Augusta, on Nov. 26, 1926, the daughter of Charles H. and Edris Folsom Porter. She graduated from Cony High School, valedictorian of the class of 1944. While attending Farmington State Teachers College, she accepted the call to the Christian ministry. After graduating from college in 1948, she studied at Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, graduating in 1953 with a bachelor of divinity degree. After her graduation, she served as pastor of the United Baptist Church of Canton, where she was ordained in 1954.

After her service in Canton, she served as assistant pastor to the Rev. David B. Howe of the Saco United Baptist Church; associate pastor of First Baptist Church, Springfield, Mass.; pastor of First Baptist Church in Florida, Mass.; and pastor of the Buckfield Community Church in Buckfield, until her retirement in 1983.

She moved to the The Pines Community at that time, returning to Ocean Park, where she had been a camper and counselor at the Youth Conference and a chaplain at Camp Ataloa. She returned to the Saco United Baptist Church, where she found many friends with whom she had worked in earlier years.

She enjoyed an active retirement, serving as chairperson for the church prayer chain, leader of the prayer group at the Pines, member of the Pines Interfaith Worship Service Committee and member of the Pines Long Term Planning Committee.

She represented York Baptist Association on the general board of American Baptist Churches of Maine. She participated in the spiritual growth courses offered at the China Lake Conference Center, and taught a course on “Dreams as a Way of Listening to God.”

She loved her 25 years of life at the Pines, and enjoyed gardening, learning to play the recorder, discovering a talent for writing, reading and doing some traveling. She found great joy in her many, many dear friends, as well as in her association throughout the years with her fellow colleagues.

She is survived by her sister, Mary (Porter) Foster and her husband, Paul; nephew, Daniel P. Foster and his wife, Karen; two nieces, Diane (Foster) Hastings and her husband, David and Vicki J. Foster and her companion, Bill Crosby. two grandnephews, Jason Foster and his wife, Brenda, and Ryan Hastings and his wife, Caryl; a grandniece, Amy Hastings and her fiancé, Joey Macomber; and two great-nephews, Nathan and Cameron Foster, whom she was so happy to have known.

The following defines her mission in life:

If I can win some precious soul to Christ;

And know that when I leave, he’ll carry on;

And maybe win some other to his Lord;

And to carry high the torch when he is gone;

If some shall stop me in the Gloryland;

And say, “I’m here because one day you came;

To tell me of the Savior’s matchless love,” Then I can know I have not lived in vain.

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