Obituary of Wendell Craig Hannan

Wendell Craig Hannan, 84 of Liberty, died suddenly at his home December 19, 2011. He was born June 9, 1927 in Waltham, MA to Rose and Guy Hannan. His parents were working in the Waltham Watch Factory. Wendell used to joke that he wasn’t really a native Mainer because his father went ahead of his pregnant wife in May to Maine to start the crops on the new farm they had just bought in Liberty. A month later Rose and the new baby Wendell settled on the farm with Guy. Wendell graduated from Walker High School and served 18 months in Germany during WWII helping in the hospitals there. He returned home to work the farm with his parents until his retirement. They harvested tons of blueberries for 50 years for the commercial market. They grew fields of strawberries , marketing them themselves from their farm stand, taking them to summer visitors along the lake, and delivering crates of them to French and Braun in Camden. His Uncle Irving Hannan sold them also for 40 years from his store in Liberty where the Trading Post is now. They also raised many vegetables and fruits and sold them from their farm. The same out-of-staters from NY, MA, and CT would stop every year. For many winters Wendell drove to Florida and worked in an animal hospital there. He always went to the Orange Bowl parade and took movies with his Bell and Howell and showed them to his family when he returned home in the spring. He took movies of his family, his nieces and nephews, and people who came to pick and rake on the farm. He was an avid skier, using the slopes in western Maine, but his greatest love was music and dancing. He didn’t miss many Saturday night dances, and that was the last thing he did before he died. He loved animals and raised many cats, rabbits and had 70 kids (goats). He had a great sense of humor and loved to converse and share his wisdom and folklore of Liberty and Palermo’s days gone by. He drove his old Volkswagen convertible, passed to him from his father, in the Liberty Memorial Day parade for years, and when that no longer ran he decorated his bicycle and rode it. He rode it in last year’s parade at age 84. He is survived by a son, Christopher Guy Hannan, a sister, Faylene Ballard of Belfast and her two daughters, Wanda Cooper and husband Brian of Belfast, and Maureen Palmer and husband Charles of Liberty, a son, Gardner W. Fuller and his partner Doreen of Troy, and a brother, Gordon Hannan and wife Lois of Winslow and their son Paul and wife Cynthia of CT. A memorial service will be held Saturday, January 7th at 1:00 PM at Liberty Baptist Church. Interment will follow at Hannan Cemetery, Palermo. Arrangements under the care of Riposta Funeral Home, 182 Waldo Avenue, Belfast.