BRUNSWICK — Isabel “Betty” Firuski Thacher, age 91, of Brunswick, died on Friday, May 27, at Thornton Oaks.

The daughter of Maurice and Isabel Jennings Firuski, she was born on December 4, 1919 in Cambridge, Mass.

She attended The Buckingham School in Cambridge, had a memorable year at La Villa Yema in Neuchatel, Switzerland, and graduated from the May School in Boston in 1937. She then attended The Child Walker Art School in Boston and the American School of Design in New York, where she studied textile design. She remained in New York for two years, designing fabrics and painting.

In August of 1942 she married Lt. Henry C. Thacher of Milton and Yarmouthport, Mass., a pediatric resident at The Massachusetts General Hospital where she was volunteering as a Red Cross Nurse’s Aid. Dr. Thacher was stationed in Casablanca for a year before being transferred to the flight surgeon’s school in San Antonio, Tex., where he was a flight surgeon at Lubbock Army Air Field until the war ended.

In 1947, they moved to Auburn, where he practiced pediatrics and allergy in the Lewiston-Auburn area. They lived in Auburn with their two daughters, Sarah and Poppy, until 1973.

They sailed a great deal, largely between South Freeport and Rogue Island, and skied in Maine, Vermont and eastern Canada on winter vacations.

She ran the Bates College Art Gallery in Lewiston, for two years.

Throughout her life, Betty’s two favorite places remained Wiscasset, and Yarmouthport on Cape Cod.

After her divorce in 1973, she moved to their former summer home at High Head in South Harpswell, She had started her business, Venture Antiques, briefly in Auburn, before moving it to Brunswick, where she shared space with the Casco Bay Country Store for five years. Then, for the next 22 years, she was on Exchange Street in Portland’s Old Port. She was especially known for making beautiful lamps from antique vases.

All her life, she strongly supported volunteer service, giving over 1,000 hours at The Massachusetts General Hospital for the Red Cross during WWII. She was instrumental in establishing a coffee shop in the Central Maine General Hospital, now CMMC in Lewiston.

In Portland, she served on the board of Greater Portland Landmarks for six years.

In 1999, she suffered a head injury and had to give up her antique business of 28 years. She moved to the Thornton Oaks Retirement Community in Brunswick in 2000 and lived there until her passing.

She was predeceased by her parents; and in 2009 by her sister, Marguerite Green, of Nashua, N.H.

She is survived by her beloved daughters, Sarah Ann Thacher and her devoted friend, Heather Nering of Freeport, and Poppy Thacher Arford and her husband, Lorin Arford, of Brunswick; and four grandchildren, Katie and Hannah Thacher, and Libby and Jesse Arford. She is also survived by her half sister, Orlena Firuski of Salisbury, Conn., and her two children, Samuel Gignoux of Hinesburg, Vt., and Elvia Gignoux of Lakeville, Conn.  She leaves two very dear friends, Anne J. Smith, of Brunswick, and Michelle Seacord, of Freeport.

Condolences can be expressed at www.brackettfuneralhome.com.