Octavia M. Vaniotis
Octavia M. Vaniotis died peacefully Thursday, August 27, 2015 at Hawthorne House in Freeport, Maine. She was 96 years old.
Octavia Owens Miller was born in Hagerstown, Maryland on March 24, 1919, daughter of Christian A. and Bessie Williams Miller. After finishing high school in Hagerstown, Octavia moved to Boston to study voice and violin, graduating from the Boston Conservatory of Music. In Boston she met and married Louis W. Vaniotis. After a short time in Cambridge, they settled in Lowell, Massachusetts, where their only child, Chris, was born in 1948. (Octavia and Louis divorced in 1965.)
During her years in Lowell, Octavia initially worked as stitcher at several textile companies. She pursued her interest in music by teaching piano, singing in the Greater Lowell Choral Society and directing the choir at the Pawtucket Congregational Church. In the early 1960s she went back to school to obtain a teaching certificate and became a second grade teacher in the Tyngsborough, Massachusetts school system, where she worked until her retirement in 1984.
In the mid 1970s she left Lowell for a new home in Townsend, Massachusetts. There she enthusiastically dove into gardening, landscaping, feeding the birds and exploring the woods, fields and walking trails in the area. She and Chris also spent many hours hiking together in the White Mountains of New Hampshire.
In 1990 Octavia moved to Yarmouth, Maine, to be closer to Chris and his wife Jacky and grandchildren Thomas and Amy. She never missed a school play, concert or ceremony. She lived at Royal Mariner Estates, where she continued her gardening and recruited friends and neighbors to join her on explorations of Maine’s natural environment. The geese and ducks at Yarmouth’s Royal River Park loved her frequent visits with buckets full of cracked corn for their dining pleasure.
While in Yarmouth she joined the Falmouth Congregational Church, and attended Sunday worship there for many years. After physical limitations prevented her from getting out on Sundays, she enjoyed and appreciated home visits from church members and staff.
In 2006 she moved to the Woods at Canco in Portland, where she made new friends and, despite failing vision, still enjoyed getting outdoors and walking the grounds. Her next home was Ledgeview Assisted Living in Cumberland, from 2010 to 2012. Most recently she lived at Hawthorne House in Freeport. Her family very much appreciates the excellent care she received at both Ledgeview and Hawthorne House and are especially grateful for the kind and tender end-of-life care the Hawthorne House staff provided.
Octavia was predeceased by her brother Christian A. Miller, Jr. and his wife Betty. She is survived by her son, Christopher L. Vaniotis and his wife Jacqueline, of North Yarmouth, Maine, grandson Thomas C. Vaniotis and his wife Maria of New York, NY, and granddaughter Amy E. Vaniotis of Portland, Oregon.
A funeral Mass will be held at Sacred Heart Church, 326 Main Street, Yarmouth, Maine on Tuesday, September 8 at 11:00 a.m., followed by interment at Holy Cross Cemetery on Smith Street in Yarmouth. Because Octavia’s approach to charitable giving was eclectic, friends or relatives who are considering sending flowers may wish instead to make a donation to a charity of their choosing.
To offer condolences and share memories with the family, please got to www.coastalcremationservices.com
Online condolences may be expressed below.
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