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Mary Davis Willard Roe Bateman ’58

Mary Davis Willard Roe Bateman ’58, January 4, 2004, in Maryland, from congestive heart failure. Mary briefly attended Reed, where she met Eugene I. Roe ’57. The couple married in 1955; they had three children, and divorced in 1965. Following the divorce, she attended the University of New Hampshire and raised her children. She graduated cum laude from the Whittemore School of Business and Economics at the university in 1969, also receiving election to Pi Gamma Mu, the national social science honor society. Her nack for language and writing enabled her to be a reporter, editor, and columnist for a variety of small town newspapers, a career she relished. Newspapers included several in New Hampshire: the Monadnock Ledger, the Keene Sentinel, and the Nashua Telegraph; additionally the Fitchburg (Massachusetts) Sentinel and the Boston Globe. From 1972 to 1984, she worked for Town of Peterborough (New Hampshire) Transcript. In 1978, she married Jonathan H. Bateman, with whom she operated the Liberal Arts Garage, specializing in antique and classic car restoration. For the Town of Peterborough, she was commissioned to research and write a 500-page history. Mary also wrote works of fiction, including mystery novels set in fictitious New England towns. Personally committed to civic action, she was involved in recycling and water and sewer committees for the Town of Peterborough, and was also involved with the Monadnock Community Day Care Center, the Monadnock Community Chorus, the Museum of Transportation in Boston, and the Summit Point Raceway in Charles Town, West Virginia. She mastered the runic language in J.R.R. Tolkien’s books, made 95 quilts, knitted with precision, and did needlepoint. Mary is survived by her husband, two sons and a daughter, two step-daughters, seven grandchildren, and one brother.

Appeared in Reed magazine: May 2004

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