Family, community celebrate Fayette teenager’s life.
READFIELD – Marlee Johnston liked to be different.
“Marlee was full of color. If she was in a room, you would know it,” former Maine state Rep. Wendy Ault, R-Wayne, a friend of the Johnston family, said Thursday during a news conference on the Kents Hill School campus before the family’s celebration of their daughter’s life.
The 14-year-old Fayette girl was slain Saturday near her home on Lovejoy Shores Drive.
Marlee dressed colorfully, sometimes wearing fishnet stockings to school and changing the color of her hair as the mood struck her, Winthrop Middle School Principal Karen Criss said.
Criss, Ault, state Rep. Patrick Flood, R-Winthrop, and Fayette Town Manager Mark Robinson spoke on behalf of the Johnston family.
A Barbie doll dressed in a long, glittering gold skirt and a light bluish-green and white fuzzy jacket with streaks of orange and green in her hair sat behind an unlit candle bearing Marlee’s picture on a chair.
The candle was surrounded by other items: multicolored, beaded key rings; trophies from Marlee’s youth softball days in Fayette when she wore the No. 7; two books, “The Mediator” and “Sadars Keep”; and a music trophy.
Nearby, skis and a softball cap from her days at Winthrop Middle School rested on an enlarged picture of Marlee. Two colorful bouquets, one of red roses, rested on the floor in front of it.
Out the window, a breathtaking view of Torsey Lake stretched for miles.
All of the pieces represented Marlee’s life, including her love of reading, skiing, swimming, music and softball.
“It’s been a very painful week at Winthrop Middle School,” Criss said.
Two hundred children are trying to cope with the loss of Marlee, she said, and students have expressed a lot of fear. There is a deep sense of loss, an emptiness in the halls, Criss said.
Marlee liked to be different, she said, from her colorful clothing to her ideas.
She said Marlee persuaded her to have a gum-chewing contest, even though gum chewing isn’t allowed in school, to raise money because she had a “good cause” in mind.
“You couldn’t say no to her,” Criss said, because she always had a good reason.
They raised $200 for the cause.
She was a natural leader, Criss said, and well-liked by students and teachers at the school.
Marlee “taught us to look at life with a positive and can-do attitude,” Criss said.
Ault said the family appreciates the outpouring of support shown by the community and friends.
Flood said that the family has asked for compassion and understanding for the Johnston family and for the Armstrong family.
Patrick Armstrong, 14, of Fayette has been accused of killing Marlee.
As the flags flew at half-staff in Fayette and Kents Hill, people from all over the state and beyond came to pay respects to the Johnstons.
Thirty minutes before Marlee’s memorial at Alfond Athletics Center was to begin, the parking lot was full and people were parking on the side of Route 17.
Gov. John Baldacci, U.S. Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe, and U.S. Rep. Michael Michaud attended the service.
Firefighters from all around also came to pay respects. Ted Johnston, a lobbyist, and his son, Alec, 17, are both volunteer firefighters with the Fayette Fire Department. Marlene Thibodeau, the children’s mother, works for Collins.
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