1934 – 2014

FARMINGTON — Elizabeth Jean Chmielewski, 80, of Rangeley Plantation, died Sunday afternoon, May 11, at Franklin Memorial Hospital.

She was born on May 7, 1934, in Hyattsville, Md., the daughter of Harold and Cornelia (Hutt) Albright, and was a graduate of West Philadelphia (Pa.) High School. On April 10, 1953, she married Edmund J. Chmielewski in Elkton, Md. Jean worked as a telephone operator for several business organizations, retiring from Verizon in Bangor.

After living in Wilmington, Del., Exeter, N.H., and Holden, Mass., she and her husband and family made their home in Orrington for many years, before retiring to their longtime vacation home on Mooselookmeguntic Lake in Rangeley Plantation in 1998.

Family truly was the most important part of Jean’s life. She loved having her children and her grandchildren, whom she adored, visit every summer and spending the holidays with them each year. There was no better vacation than one spent with such a special grandmother!

Jean took great pride and pleasure in beautifully wrapping her gifts to family and friends; her Christmas shopping was always completed before Thanksgiving. She put her love for her family into all her cooking — her peanut butter and banana-split pies were favorite family treats, as were her famous chocolate chip pancake breakfasts.

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She created beautiful and colorful flower gardens, was a voracious reader and avid learner and enjoyed doing crossword puzzles, as well as voicing her opinion in a good political argument. Jean loved music and never grew tired of sharing the joys and beauty of nature, particularly the sunsets she witnessed across the lake and the multitudes of birds, squirrels and chipmunks that visited her feeders. She especially loved her cats and was never without at least one throughout her life.

She is survived by her devoted husband and best friend of 61 years, Edmund, of Rangeley Plantation; loving daughters, Susan Vogt and her husband, Robert Jr., and their children, Abigail and Harrison, of Boylston, Mass., and Deborah Chmielewski and her children, Elizabeth and Jack, of North Yarmouth; a brother, Robert Albright and his wife, Corinne, of Bloomington, Ind.; two sisters-in-law, Thelma Albright of North Augusta, S.C., and Sylvia Albright of Forestburg, Texas; several nieces and nephews; and very dear friends, Leonard and Patricia Jezyk and their families of Wilmington, Del.

She was predeceased by her parents; her mother-in-law, Helen Chmielewski; and a brother, Harold.

She will be greatly missed, but never forgotten. “We love you!”

Condolences and tributes may be shared with the family at www.wilesrc.com.


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