Mrs. Gushee was born in Portland, Maine, on April 10, 1933, a daughter of Elbridge and Elizabeth Sibley. She married Lawrence A. Gushee on August 16, 1958, in Mamaroneck, New York. He survives.
Survivors also include four children, Matthew C. Gushee of Englewood, Colorado; Elizabeth M. Gushee of Austin, Texas; Sarah LaBarre of Nanaimo, British Columbia; and Rachel H. Gushee of Urbana; a sister, Abigail Sibley Bregman of Montreal, Québec; and a brother, Willis E. Sibley of Shady Side, Maryland. She was preceded in death by a brother, John.
Mrs. Gushee grew up in a house on Harpswell Street in Brunswick and attended Longfellow School. The Sibleys also owned property on Middle Bay in North Harpswell, where they spent as much time as possible in the non-winter months. As a young adult, she moved with her family to Washington, D.C. where she graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School. Her many academic achievements included bachelor’s degrees in English and piano performance from Oberlin College and Conservatory of Music; a Fulbright Fellowship to study harpsichord in Paris; a doctorate in music history from Yale University; and a master’s in library and information science from the University of Illinois. Over the course of her career, she taught at the undergraduate and graduate levels at Boston University, University of Wisconsin and University of Illinois, where she held a full-time faculty appointment.
A former colleague remembered Mrs. Gushee as “an artistic and learned person” who successfully balanced the demands of a scholarly career with those of raising a family and being an active member of her community. Beyond music, she had a wide variety of interests including travel, sewing, knitting, cooking, drawing, dance and gardening.
Mrs. Gushee had a deep love of the natural world, especially the flora and fauna of the East Coast. She conveyed this passion to her children during annual vacations to Harpswell, where she felt most at home.
A memorial service for Mrs. Gushee will be held at a later date. Contributions in her honor may be made to the Elbridge Sibley Sociology Prize Fund at Bowdoin College or the Harpswell Heritage Land Trust.
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