1907 – 2003

WEST PARIS – Sara Fernald Pepper, 96, died Monday, Nov. 24, at the Ledgeview Living Center. She resided in West Paris for the past three years and was formerly of Dixfield for many years.

She was born in Rumford, on July 31, 1907, the daughter of Charles and Mary Ellen (Holman) Fernald who had owned the Fernald Drug Store on the island in Rumford. She attended Rumford schools and graduated from Stephen’s High School in 1925 and later received her B.S. in Elementary Education from Farmington State Teachers College in 1959. She worked in Washington, D.C., for two years and then returned to teach in the Rumford Center School and spent four years in the Rumford School system and then moved to Dixfield where she taught 39 years for a total of 43 years of teaching, and retired as principal of Dixfield Elementary School.

She was a member of the Dixfield Congregational Church and the former Rumford Universalist Church. She was a member of the Maine Teacher’s Assoc., the Eastern Star, Rebekahs, Dixfield Social Club, International Delta Kappa Gamma Assoc., Zeta Chapter, Senior Citizen’s Clubs of Peru & Dixfield, Dixfield Extension Coordinator of RSVP, and served on the Dixfield Ione Harlow Scholarship Committee for many years.

She was married on July 8, 1933 to the late Forrest Pepper.

Survivors include four granddaughters, Terri Shanholtz and husband Wes of Bowdoin, Denise Palmer of Berlin, N.H., Tracy Wilson and husband Greg of Winthrop, Dawn Pettengill and husband Rob of North Monmouth; two grandsons, Chris Thomas of San Diego, Calif., and Jay Thomas of Colorado; 10 great-grandchildren; and several nieces and nephews.

She was predeceased by two daughters, Marlene Palmer and Mary Thomas; two brothers, Charles and Holman Fernald; and a sister, Elizabeth Rounds.