CUMBERLAND — Joyce Hancock Crosen, 82, died July 14 at Sedgewood Commons in Falmouth, after a long but graceful journey with dementia. She was surrounded by her loving family and caring community.

She was born July 23, 1930, in Hancock, daughter of James Fuller Hancock and Hilda Louise Hancock. Always a passionate reader with a desire to learn, she graduated as valedictorian from Ellsworth High School in 1948. Summer work as cook/housekeeper for Hope Smith, of Providence, R.I., at her cottage on Hancock Point, led to an opportunity for Crosen to attend Pembroke College, the women’s college of Brown University, where she majored in English literature.

After graduating from Brown in 1952, she returned to Ellsworth for a job teaching high school English. One enchanted fall evening, she met Robert Crosen, a junior at the University of Maine. They met at a Mariaville Grange Hall dance and it was love at first sight. They became engaged after four dates, and were married in 1953 in Hancock. Their love would remain strong and true through a happy marriage lasting six decades.

After his graduation, they lived in the Philadelphia and Boston areas prior to moving back to their beloved Maine in 1960, settling in Cumberland Center. A wonderful and loving wife, mother, cook, and homemaker, Crosen was also a substitute teacher in the Cumberland school system and was a junior high library assistant. She read widely, regularly wrote letters and created a published series of 50 double-crostic puzzles featuring literary quotes. She also much enjoyed crafts including knitting, sewing, making dolls and doll clothes, braiding and hooking rugs. She was active in the church and taught Sunday school.

Crosen always had a sense of adventure and greatly enjoyed planning and going on outings and trips with her family. As empty nesters, she and her husband traveled to many destinations around America and Europe. She also loved going to the Crosen family camp on Beech Hill Pond.

She will be missed by her loving husband of 60 years; daughter Jane and her husband, Richard Washburn, of Penobscot; son Glenn and his wife, Nancy, of West Chester, Pa.; granddaughters Kelsey, Megan and Molly Crosen; cousins Norris Johnston, of Ellsworth, and Earl Johnston and his wife, Betty, of Hancock; niece Karen McLean-Wilson, of California; and friends, neighbors and caregivers.

The family gives grateful thanks to Home Instead and Sedgewood Commons, whose caring and skilled staffs have provided the support that has been so necessary.

A time of gathering will be held 9 a.m. Monday with a funeral service at 10 a.m. at Lindquist Funeral Home, 1 Mayberry Lane, Yarmouth, followed by interment at 3:30 PM in Riverside Cemetery, in Hancock.

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