Born at the family home on 16 Elm Street, Topsham, Maine on September 28, 1921 to Arthur Berry and Angela (Hazelton) Johnson, she attended Topsham schools and graduated from Brunswick High School in 1938. Mary attended Wellesley College, graduating in 1942. Mary started as a cub reporter and photographer for The Brunswick Record.
Mary went on to serve as the Editor of The Connecticut Alcoan, the house organ for Aluminum Company of America in Bridgeport-Fairfield, Connecticut during World War II, and then served as a radio writer at Station WRNL in Richmond, Virginia. In 1947, Mary returned to Brunswick, Maine to become the Executive Director of the Brunswick, Maine Chapter of the American Red Cross, where she met Edward Eric Butler, one of the many WWII veterans attending Bowdoin College.
Mary and Eric were married in 1947 and Mary turned her talents to raising their three children, Katherine, Elizabeth, and Edward Eric Butler, Jr., living in Maryland, Delaware, North Carolina,
Michigan, Massachusetts and her beloved Mere Point, Maine.
Mary eventually returned to her professional career as Director for Alumnae Giving for Wellesley College, strengthening her lifelong love for the college, and its mission of educating strong women. In 1986, Mary and Eric retired to Brunswick, Maine, where Mary pursued her lifelong love of learning, sailing, gardening, painting, and writing, ever devoted to her family and many friends.
Mary is survived by her husband, Edward Eric Butler, her three children, Katherine, Elizabeth, and Edward Eric Butler, Jr. (Jay), and grandson, Benjamin Allen Butler
She was predeceased by her brothers Arthur Berry Johnson, Jr. and Clarence Hazelton Johnson, and sisters Helen Johnson Dudley, Angela Johnson Fellows, and Ruth Johnson McCarter.
A memorial service will be held on Saturday, October 20, 2012 at 11 am at St. Paul’s Church in Brunswick, Maine. Interment will be in Riverview Cemetery, Topsham. Arrangements are by Stetson’s Funeral Home, 12 Federal St., Brunswick, where memorial condolences may be expressed at stetsonsfuneralhome.com.
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