1923 – 2016

BRUNSWICK — Lucille Helen Hornbeck, 93, of Brunswick died Monday, Nov. 14, at Midcoast Senior Health Center.

She was born June 20, 1923, in Binghamton, N.Y., the daughter of Ross Locke Hoag and Ruth (Demoney) Hoag. She and her three siblings grew up on the dairy farm managed by her father. Her education, including her lifelong love of books, began in a one-room schoolhouse. At Johnson City High School, she was a studious girl with a particular love of Latin. Following graduation, she attended Houghton College, from which she graduated with a degree in classics in 1944.

She then began a career as a teacher in Fort Plain, N.Y. On April 5, 1947, Lucille married Harrison E. Hornbeck, and they made their home in Fort Plain, where they raised four children, and where, in 1964, she resumed her teaching career.

For more than 20 years, Lucille was a much-loved teacher of French and Latin at Fort Plain Central School. She chaperoned groups of high school students on trips abroad and, in her French classes, utilized the then-new technique of audio-visual language learning. Latin, however, was her first and truest love, and any child at her dinner table knew that an explanation of “the root” of a new vocabulary word was inevitable.

To the end of her life, she espoused the benefits of learning Latin and always delighted in hearing the experiences of those who had studied and enjoyed it. (This did not include her husband, whose own high school Latin experience had been permanently scarred by Caesar’s Gallic wars.)

In retirement, Lucille and her husband moved to Brunswick, where they were parishioners at First Parish Church and dedicated volunteers at Regional, now Mid Coast Hospital. Lucille worked part time at the Porteous store in Cook’s Corner and made a welcoming home for her eight grandchildren. She also carried on with her love of Latin and the classics, this time with the College Guild, which distributes self-study education units for incarcerated men and women. Lucille’s course on Greek and Roman mythology was popular with prisoners and, right up to the time of her death, she continued to work on a new course for the College Guild entitled The Wonders of the World and to advocate for prison educational opportunities.

Lucille was also an accomplished seamstress who could produce an exquisite smocked dress for a child or an elegant wine bottle carrier for her friends at Thornton Oaks, where she spent the last 11 years of her life, following Harrison’s death in 2004. An avid reader, she kept careful lists of books she intended to acquire and eschewed romance and other “worthless” reading. At the time of her death, she had almost finished Erik Larson’s book on the Lusitania sinking, and, as usual, had several overdue books from Curtis Library. She did not care for television, with one exception: a Red Sox game. At 90, she made her first trip to Fenway, although the game was completely overshadowed by a chance meeting with retired Sox catcher Jason Varitek. She threw her arms around him.

Lucille is survived by four children, Mary Beth and her husband, Michael Feldman, of Bowdoin, Jan and her husband, Dudley Chapman, of Medina, Ohio, Robert Hornbeck of Vienna, Va., and Susan Hornbeck of Delmar, N.Y. Other survivors include a sister, Doris Bowen of Charlotte, N.C.; and seven grandchildren, Daniel Feldman and his wife, April Robinson, of Bowdoinham, Samuel Feldman and his wife, Shioka Kudo, of Watertown, Mass., Sarah Feldman of Newport, Vt., Ian Chapman and his wife, Julie, of Pinos Altos, N.M., Benjamin Chapman and his wife, Sara Brunkhorst, of Chicago, Ill., Kailyn Hornbeck of Vienna, Va., and Kathryn Hornbeck, also of Vienna. Another grandchild, Rachel Feldman, died in 1990. Three great-grandchildren also survive her, Maya Feldman and Yuma Feldman of Watertown and Emilia Feldman of Bowdoinham.

Those who wish may write a note of condolence to the family at www.brackettfuneralhome.com.