WOOLWICH — Elisabeth Wieboldt King, 86, of Woolwich, Maine, died peacefully on Tuesday, June 2, 2015, from cancer. She was born in Evanston, Illinois, on Sept. 6, 1928, as the sixth child of eight to Herbert and Flora Sieck.

Growing up during World War II, her home was busy with home-front activity; it was then she became aware of the impact of politics on society. Betty graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a degree in architecture. There she met her husband, John Patrick Gordon King. They were married in 1949 and from 1954-1967, they had eight children.

Summers were spent traveling the country in a series of school buses modified as campers. In 1958, they bought a salt marsh farm on Hockomock Bay in Woolwich. At the height of the back-to-the-land movement, Betty King moved her family there from Brookline, Massachusetts. “The Farm” was soon populated with a variety of livestock as well as vegetable and flower gardens.

She was active in the local schools and pioneered homeschooling with her younger children. In Maine, Betty realized her skills and potential as an environmental activist, and joined forces with then state Rep. Maria Holt to spearhead efforts to close the Maine Yankee nuclear power plant. Prompted by the oil embargo of the ’70s, she worked for the Department of Energy and won an award for her patented design using holography to utilize sunlight for architectural lighting. She worked in passive solar design as the sole practitioner in Maine until she retired.

An avid gardener and herbalist, she was an active member of the Sagadahoc Chapter of the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners. She was also active with the Friends of Merrymeeting Bay and Kennebec Estuary Land Trust, and served on the Woolwich Conservation Commission. As a painter, she loved to paint landscapes and reveled in the beauty of Maine landscapes.

Betty was a devoted Catholic and acted as a Communicant at St. Mary’s Church in Bath. A lover of music, she sang in the St. Mary’s choir. Her spiritual life deepened over decades of cultivation. Her values of social activism were informed by her mother’s activism and by the Catholic Worker’s Movement. Betty worked to promote social justice with H.O.M.E out of Orland, Maine. With Sean Donovan, her partner of the last 20 years, she started the organization “Home Together” to provide support for transitioning homeless persons.

Betty and Sean also helped to create The Neighborhood Cafe, a place where families in need can sit down with others to a warm meal. Betty King has also been a writer all her life, keeping copious journals. Most recently, she was a part of the Wednesday writing group “Write On” in Brunswick. Betty’s brilliant poems and insightful essays appear in publications by this group, titled Muses and Memories, From Maine and Away, and Times and Seasons. And her name was often found in the local newspapers with frequent letters to the editor.

Betty King was predeceased by her eldest son, Alan King in 1992 and by John G. King in 2014. Her surviving children and their spouses/ partners include: Andrew King and Diane Roulston, James King and Tracy Adams, Charles and Vera King, Martha King and Jerry Maserjian, David King and Joan Milam, Benjamin King and Eloise Humphrey, Matthew King and Lauren Mofford. She has three delightful granddaughters: Sara Elizabeth Juneau King, Katherine ( Katy) King, and Athena King. Beloved by her family and her community, she will be missed for her optimism, kindness, and calm wisdom.

A memorial will be held on a future date. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to Home Together, Bath, attn. Bill Bliss, Neighborhood United Church of Christ, 798 Washington St., Bath, ME 04530; online see www.faithinBath.org.