She was born in Brunswick on April 27, 1906, daughter of Frederick Payne Shaw and Annie Bartlett (Toothaker) Shaw. She was a lifelong resident of the City of Bath.
She began piano lessons at age six, a pupil of her Aunt Harriet Shaw, wife of John O. Shaw. She traveled to Portland to study piano with Professor Alfred Brinkler, former Municipal Organist for the City of Portland. Music was her life. As a teenager she played the piano in a movie theater during silent movies, and she continued to play the piano until just days before she died.
Carrie attended Bath schools and graduated from Morse High School in the Class of 1924. She was the oldest member of the Morse High School Alumni Association. In recent years her piano rendition of “The Blue and The White” brought tears to the eyes of banquet attendees.
She entered the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester in 1925, and graduated with a Bachelor Degree of Music in 1929. Carrie returned to Bath and accepted the position of Supervisor of Music for the Bath public schools. She held the position from 1929-1937 and from 1953-1972. She taught piano privately, and was a member of the National Music Education Association and Maine Music Education Association.
She married Harry Lyle Day on November 25, 1936, and raised three children on Green Street in Bath.
Carrie was a communicant at Grace Episcopal Church, and had been a soprano soloist and member of the choir. She had also been an active member of the Grace Church Doers, a women’s group.
She was a Charter Member of the Bath Junior Hospital League, and a past president. She was a corporator of the Bath Memorial Hospital, a long-time worker at the hospital’s thrift shop, and a member of the Bath Hospital Auxiliary. She was also a member of the
Center for the Arts,
Pine Tree Society,
Sagadahoc Preservation, Maine Maritime
Museum, Coastal
Humane Society,
Pejepscot Historical
Society, Bath Music
Club, and the Popham Beach Association.
Carrie is a descendant of one of Bath’s oldest families. Shaw’s Bookstore, one of the oldest retail businesses in Bath during its tenure, was established in 1876 by her grandfather John O. Shaw. He was elected Mayor of Bath in 1893, and later also served on the School Board. The business was taken over by her father Frederick P. Shaw who operated it until 1950.
She was predeceased by her husband Harry, on November 15, 1967, her brother Robert Payne Shaw on August 3, 1978, and her nephew Robert Payne Shaw, Jr. on December 24, 2002.
She is survived by a daughter, Anne Day Smith of Dresden, and her husband Gerald; two sons, Jonathan R. Day of Wyomissing, Pennsylvania, and his wife Linda, and James F. Day of Woolwich, and his wife Linda; eight grandchildren and fourteen great-grandchildren.
A funeral service will be held at Grace Episcopal Church on Washington Street in Bath on Saturday, February 16th at 11:00 a.m. Burial will take place in the spring at Oak Grove Cemetery in Bath. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to Grace Church’s Memorial Fund,1100 Washington Street, Bath, 04530 or to the Morse High School Scholarship Fund, P.O. Box 1030, Bath, 04530.
Arrangements are by Daigle Funeral Home, 819 High Street, Bath. Condolences may be made online at www.Daiglefuneralhome.com.
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