Bayne Wayland Drown passed away at the age of 88, on Tuesday morning, December 11, 2012 in Sudbury.
Born and raised in Dixfield, Maine, he was the youngest of Percy and Mina (Durrell) Drown’s four sons. He graduated from Dixfield High School in 1942 and shortly afterward joined the US Army. A Master Sergeant, he served in the European-African Theatres with the 15th Army Group for the duration of World War II.
Bayne continued his education at the Maine School of Commerce in Auburn, and earned his undergraduate degree at the University of Maine at Orono. He completed his Masters’ Degree in Education at Boston University in 1954. Bayne embarked on his teaching career in Bristol, Maine, and subsequently taught students at Farmington High School, Kennebunk High School, and then for nearly thirty years at Natick High School where he was head of the business department. He had met Clara Mae French while both were studying to become teachers in Auburn. They married in 1951 and had four children, two girls and two boys. Bayne was widowed after 9 happy years of marriage when Clara succumbed to leukemia in 1960. He raised his children on his own for 19 years.
Bayne was an accomplished pianist, and a lover of music, reading, and learning. For many years he taught Sunday School classes and sang in the choir at the First Baptist Church in Natick, and served on the Council on Aging Board in Natick. He was a man of a kind and gentle nature who loved his family deeply and had a strong abiding faith.
In 1979, he married Elizabeth “Betty” (Maxwell) Blinn in Natick, welcoming her four children into to his family. In 1988, Bayne and Betty settled at the Riverbend Woods Adult Community in Athol. It would become their home for the next 18 years. Bayne was an active member of the Athol Congregational Church, again teaching Sunday school, and for ten years served as the Director of the Stephen Ministries. After his retirement in 1984, Bayne kept active by teaching business classes at Mt. Wachusett Community College and working with the Athol Council on Aging. In 2005, he and Betty moved to the Hudson-Marlborough area and in 2008, he entered Sudbury Pines Extended Care due to Lewy Body Dementia.
Predeceased by a son, Scott Kevin Drown in 2010, he is survived by Betty; his children, Jan Deborah Carr and her husband Joseph of Salem, NH, Mark Jeffrey Drown and his wife Gail of Temple, TX, Kim Lori Cave and her husband Michael of Wellesley and Grace Drown (wife of Scott) of Leeds ME; his step-children, Carolynn Henderson and her husband Kenneth of Holliston, Peter Blinn and his wife Ellen of Oxford, James Blinn and his wife Maureen of Menifee, CA, and David Blinn and his wife Jacque of Lakeside, CA; a brother, Lendall Drown of Jay, ME; 17 grandchildren and 16 great-grandchildren.
A Memorial Service to celebrate Bayne’s long and fulfilled life will be held in the John Everett & Sons Funeral Home, 4 Park Street at Natick Common, Natick, on Saturday, Dec. 15th at 10:00 AM. Friends may visit with the family beginning at 9:00A.M. Burial will follow at Dell Park Cemetery.
The Drown-Blinn families request that in lieu of flowers memorial donations may be made to Meroby Elementary School- Scott Drown Memorial Library Fund, 21 Cross St., Mexico, Maine 04257 or to Sudbury Pines Hospice, 642 Boston Post Rd., Sudbury, MA 01776.