Clare deKay Thompson, 89
April 13, 2007
Clare deKay Thompson, 89, of Newburyport, died
from pneumonia on Friday, April 13, 2007, at Merrimac Valley Hospital in
Haverhill.
Born on October 1, 1917, in Boston, the daughter
of Maurice deKay Thompson and Lillian Hastings Thompson, she grew up in
Brookline, attended the Winsor School and Bryn Mawr College, Class of
1941, graduating with a bachelor's degree in English. She worked for the
Brooklyn Art Museum in the early 1940s, and in the 1950s for an art
gallery in Washington, D.C. A devotee of ocean sailing, she moved to
Rockport in the early 1970s.
She was a skilled tennis player, and avid amateur
naturalist and active supporter of wildlife defense and environmental
causes. During the 1970s and 1980s she was a research assistant at the
Massachusetts Audubon Society writing for their publication, Sanctuary,
on a variety of subjects from natural history to emerging energy
technologies. She volunteered for cultural and charitable groups, such
as the Rockport Library and the Hammond Castle. She participated in play
readings and was a regular member of an amateur recorder ensemble. She
traveled widely in the American West, the Far East, the South Pacific,
Hawaii and Alaska. She lived in Rockport until she moved to an assisted
living facility in Newburyport in 2000.
A New Englander to the core, she was strong-willed
and independent and had a wry sense of humor. She was kind and
compassionate, cared deeply about animal welfare and was devoted to her
cat, Mask.
Sister of the late Janice Massy and Evelyn
Riesman, Class of 1935. She is survived by two nieces, Jennie Riesman
and Lucy Loewenstein; two nephews, Neil Goodwin and Michael Riesman; two
cousins, Jessamine Warren and Sally Hogan; and several grandnieces and
grandnephews.
Arrangements: A private memorial gathering
for her family and friends to honor her and celebrate her life will be
held in Rockport. Arrangements are by Paul C. Rogers & Sons Family
Funeral Home, 334 Main St., Haverhill.
