Andrea Hurd Burns

NORWAY – Andrea Hurd Burns, 87, died June 23, 2025, at her home in Norway, of complications from glioblastoma.

She was born to Frances Louise Van Blarcom and Richard Brewster Hurd in Salem, Mass., on Oct. 23, 1937. After her first mother’s death when Andy was 6 months old, and following her father’s remarriage, she was raised by her second mother, Marjorie Wilson Hurd.

Andy graduated from Holten High School in Danvers, Mass., and from Wheaton College in Norton, Mass., in 1959, where she majored in European history and participated in Tritons synchronized swimming. In 1960 she married Henry J. “Hank” Burns of Salem, who survives her.

In the early 1960s, Andy and Hank, with their two young sons, became live-in caretakers of Salem’s Peirce-Nichols House, a famed Samuel McIntire–designed example of Georgian-Federal architecture, where she gave tours of the home’s museum rooms on behalf of the Essex Institute, now the Peabody Essex Museum, and became invested in historic preservation.

In 1971, the family moved to Waterford, Maine, purchasing the “Old Plummer Place” (1794) atop Plummer Hill whose wildly overgrown gardens Andy tamed and transformed, eventually earning a feature story in Down East. Andy was an award-winning first-grade teacher at the Mildred M. Fox Elementary School in South Paris, serving on various state committees before retiring in 1996.

She then began a second career as a volunteer leader in Maine historic preservation. In the early 2000s, she helped to save and preserve the historic McLaughlin Garden in South Paris, serving as founding president of the McLaughlin Garden and Homestead, now listed on the National Register of Historic Places. After she and Hank moved to Norway in 2005, she led Norway Downtown, guiding the town to Maine Downtown Network status, organizing community events, and helping town leaders to embrace historical preservation.

In 2017, the Maine Development Foundation awarded her a Downtown Visionary Award for being the “unabashed voice in the room reiterating why quality of place matters.” A trustee of Maine Preservation, she worked with the town of Norway to create a preservation easement for Crooker House, a well-preserved example of late vernacular Greek Revival style. She was a founding member of the Norway Landmarks Preservation Society, which preserved the famed Gingerbread House.

In 2024, she was honored by Maine Preservation for “pure tenacity and a relentless ability to hold people to account” that “fostered a self-sustaining preservation ethic and changed the landscape of downtown Norway for the better.” She also received the Oxford Hills Chamber of Commerce Community Service Award.

Of her leadership skills, Andy said more than once that “I don’t have any real skills. I just get people together and say, ‘Here’s what we’re going to do,’” which feels like Tom Brady saying he just threw spirals. Whether pressing a school principal to keep up with weed trimming along the school fence or, as a member of the Stephens Memorial Hospital board insisting on a historically appropriate peaked roof atop a multimillion-dollar hospital expansion, she helped to move the ball downfield.

She was president of the Waterford Library board of trustees and was an active volunteer for her alma mater, beginning as a Wheaton alumnae club president in Salem. She treasured her Wheaton friendships.

She was incapable of just mailing it in. Her sons headed to college with name labels sewn into their vintage L.L.Bean sweaters. Her grandchildren knew that a visit to Nanny’s for a holiday, birthday, or overnight meant special attention: books like Good Night Moon on their bedside table, sandwiches cut with a carpenter’s precision, and sick-day comforts like foot rubs, a favorite blanket, and binge-watching Little House on the Prairie. A cubby space beneath the stairs got the full treatment: rug, dolls, artwork, and bookshelf. Time with Nanny might include pulling weeds from downtown Norway sidewalks, “where everyone knew who Nanny was and said hello,” or lessons, like how to swim, how to peel a hard-boiled egg, or how to arrange flowers.

She had an eye for aesthetic perfection in its many forms. While watching her sons, coached by their father, play Pine Tree League baseball and seeing teammates Blaine Whitman, Jay Tilley, and her son Brewster complete another 6-4-3 double play, her cheer could be heard above all: “Beautiful!”

She is survived by her husband of 65 years, Hank Burns; two sons, Brewster Burns and his wife, Cari Medd, of Hebron, Maine, and Jay Burns and his wife, Jennifer Holland Burns, of Topsham, Maine; grandchildren Christopher, Caroline, Audrey, and Ted; eight nieces and nephews; and several cousins.

A celebration of Andrea’s life will be at 4 p.m., Tuesday, July 8, at McLaughlin Garden and Homestead, 97 Main St., South Paris ME 04281.

The family is deeply grateful for the care that Andy received from Carrie and Jeanne-Marie, and from Amanda and the professionals at Andwell Health Partners, which ensured that she retained her dignity until the end.

Arrangements are in the care of the Hall Funeral Home in Casco. Condolences and tributes may be shared with Andy’s family at http://www.hallfuneralhome.net.

Memorial donations in Andrea’s name may be made to the McLaughlin Garden and Homestead at mclaughlingarden.org or P.O. Box 492, South Paris ME 04281.