Former Easton resident retires

Sr. Joyce B. Mahany, RSM, has retired following a long and interesting career, mostly in the field of education. Older Easton residents will remember Joyce, who grew up in the River de Chute area of Easton where her parents, Eldon and Delia (Long) Mahany farmed. Her family lived in the house on the corner of the Smith (Graham) and Mahany Roads.     Joyce graduated from Easton High School in 1948. Those of you who know, or remember, Joyce will, no doubt, be interested in the course her life has taken. After attending Husson College for two years, she entered the Catholic order of the Sisters of Mercy in Portland. While teaching at various Catholic schools around the state, she continued to take courses at St. Joseph’s College in Standish and at Husson College, where she received her bachelor of science degree in education in 1958. Her master’s in education degree she received from Boston University in 1972. During an 18-year stint of teaching, Joyce taught at Immaculate Heart of Mary School in Fairfield, Cathedral High School in Portland, Orono Catholic High School, and nine years at John Bapst High School in Bangor, where she also served as vice principal for two years. In 1970, she was called to St. Joseph’s College to become that school’s director of development, a post she held until 1993. She served as a director of the Windham Chamber of Commerce from 1972 until 1993, and alternately, as vice president and president of that organization from 1990 to 1993, all three of these positions being a first for a Catholic nun in the State of Maine.
Responding to a request from her cousin, the late Honorable Luman P. Mahany, she also became the first woman to offer the opening prayer at the Maine Legislature. Beginning in 1993, Joyce became the caregiver and companion of Sen. Margaret Chase Smith until the Senator’s death in 1995. Joyce then assumed the duties of director of development at Catherine McAuley High School in Portland. After serving in that capacity for 11 years, Joyce decided to retire, but continues to volunteer at McAuley, where she still spends most of working day, except that, as she points out, she can now go home an hour and a half earlier than before.
Joyce’s long tenure as director of development at St. Joseph’s College and Catherine McAuley High School attests to the huge success she had in enhancing the programs at both of those institutions.
Correction
I’m sorry for the error on my reporting that Briana White was the first runner-up for the Miss Potato Blossom Queen. Miss Fort Fairfield took that honor, and we congratulate her.