LIVERMORE — It’s not often that one is able to pull off a surprise party, but that is just what happened to Mary Moulton at the Livermore Community Building on March 12. Since she already turned 99 early this month, she wasn’t expecting to see the crowd of friends and family wishing her happy birthday when she arrived with Terry King. Moulton is staying with King in Livermore.

There was even a “photo booth” set up of colorful streamers to use as a background for the many, many photos of Moulton and her family.

A woman of many talents, one of her former coworkers at International Paper noted that she worked on 9 and 11 paper machines as a “broke woman.” Her duties were to strip spools of remaining paper, cutting the paper up and tossing it in the hydro pulper. (If the paper web breaks during the run, all the production is discarded. The discarded production, called broke, is diluted, stored and reused as raw material for paper making.)

Moulton is well known in the area, for different things. For years she was known as the Ghost Lady for her collection of Halloween decorations that were placed on her lawn during the fall season. Those went away when she moved into a small apartment along with most of her collection of bells.

Instead, her apartment was filled with shelves of teapots in every shape color and design that you could think of, from tiny ones right up to full sized ones that would look at home during an English high tea. Then there were the fantastic forms, like her favorite one, shaped like a dragon, one of her first, complete with dark colors, a dragon’s head and flames.

Her son, Tim Cox says that her teapot collection, at least part of it is still with her at King’s home. The rest were spread among the many friends and relatives.

Moulton is a very talented individual and was also well know for her collage paintings, created from found items and fashioned into landscapes and snow scenes. She even helped with a project of the Jay Historical Society about Jay Hill as it was in the early days of settlement. Spread out on a table in the meeting room of the society was a model of Jay Hill, complete with the houses , tavern, and homes along the winding dirt road. There was even a stagecoach stopping at Starr’s Tavern, cows in the field, people and children playing around the old brick schoolhouse.

It may surprise people to know that Moulton used to be an avid hunter. When interviewed nine years ago at age 90 she stated, “Just before I was married I hunted every day of my life almost,” says Mary Moulton. “I would still love to hunt if I could!”

Her two sons, Michael Cox of Cornish and Tim Cox of Livermore are very close to their mother. Michael Cox is an artist and his work can be seen at https://www.michaelcoxart.com/ and is called Jug Hill Gallery. The creative torch seems to have been picked up the family.

Megan Norris coordinated the food and decorations. There were two birthday cakes, created by Linda Noddin of Mainely Wedding cakes in Lisbon Falls.

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