SHARON, Vt. – Deborah Bethell Wroth, a former New Gloucester, Maine resident, died on Feb. 26, 2026, at her home in Sharon, Vt. She was born March 17, 1935, and raised in Essex, Mass.
Following graduation from Vassar College, she married Hiller B. Zobel and moved to Lexington, Mass. Dee was active in the Lexington Civil Rights Society and participated in the 1963 March on Washington.
In 1973, following her marriage to L. Kinvin Wroth, she moved to New Gloucester, where she became editor of the New Gloucester News, coached field hockey at GNG High School, and sang in the Portland Symphony’s Magic of Christmas concerts for 17 years. In 1998 the Wroths moved to Vermont, where Dee was a planning board member, reading mentor, and member of a steel drum band.
She was predeceased by her son John Zobel of Seattle; and her brother Thomas Bethell of Washington, DC.
She is survived by her beloved husband; five children, and three stepchildren; her brother John Bethell of Manchester, Mass.; and 12 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
Services will be held May 16 at 3 p.m., Wellesley Hills Congregational Church, 207 Washington Street, Wellesley, Mass. Arrangements by Knight Funeral Home.
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