PORTLAND — Annie Margaret Northrup, 85, of Portland, died Dec. 16, after a long illness. She was born in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada, on March 29,1927, the daughter of Cecilia (Curry) McInnis and Francis Walter McInnis. 

As a teenager she worked in a bakery and a seniors home, and in school skipped two grades before proceeding to secretarial training at 16. After completing this training she went on to work in a law firm researching land deeds and grants.

In August 1945, she married Robert Weber and had a son before she was widowed in a post-war aircraft accident in 1949.

Northrup soon moved with her mother to St. John, N.B. where she met her present husband Percy. They were married on Armistice Day, Nov. 11, 1950, and shortly thereafter moved to Portland.

Northrup stayed active with five children, and had a love of singing and dancing, usually in the kitchen where she made donuts, lemon bread, date squares and many kinds of breads. She enjoyed Sunday outings to pick apples for pies and jams. For a time she taught Sunday school at St. Lawrence Congregational Church.

In later years the couple joined a local bowling league where they engaged many life-long friends. She was an enthusiastic square dancer and the two were regulars on the dance circuit. She was a regular spectator at her husband’s hockey games for years.

She had a love of travel, and over more than three decades the couple traveled coast to coast and to almost every state and province. In North America, her travels by car would last several weeks and she was a ready passenger for a midnight ride in New York City or a peek at the sunrise over the Grand Canyon. She came to know many cities as if they were her own back yard. The couple spent many winters in south Florida and had fond times at Moosehead Lake boating with family.

Northrup was happy to regale others with her tales of seeing live space shuttle launches, meeting political and entertainment celebrities, seeing Broadway shows and visiting a few thousand hotels with her son, a hotel critic. 

She cultivated a love of quilting and made dozens of quilts in various designs for family, friends, and some were used and sold at her son’s bed and breakfast. Family was important to her. She passes along her love of adventure and her love of books.

She was predeceased by brothers, Joseph, of Charlottetown, Jack (MacTague), of New Glasgow, Nova Scotia, Alphonse, of Hamilton, Ontario; and a sister, Marie Krachenko, also of Hamilton.

She is survived by her husband of 62 years, Percy A. Northrup, of Portland; five children, Robert Weber and his wife, Mary, of Halifax, Nova Scotia, daughter, Dawn (Northrup) Gray and her husband, Alan, Dale Northrup, Keith Northrup, and David Northrup, all of Portland; four grandchildren Jennifer Jansen, of Dartmouth, Mass., Ian Northrup, of Portland, Sean Weber, of Halifax, Nova Scotia, and Jesse Weber, of Port Alberni, British Columbia; and four great-grandchildren: Thomas and Samuel Jansen, and Ella and Sophie Weber.      

A funeral was held at Conroy-Tully-Crawford Funeral Home in Portland. Interment immediately followed at Evergreen Cemetery.


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