Kittery Point - Lillian Mattson Quimby(1925-2021) loved her family, long walks with her golden retrievers, Robert Frost's poems and a dry martini.

Lil, who lived on Gerrish Island in Kittery, Maine, for more than 35 years, died December 3 at home with her children by her side.  She was 96.  Born and raised in New London, Connecticut, she met her husband at a Congregational Church dance during World War II when he was on leave from the Navy.  He told her then and there he would marry her, which he did on his 21 ^st birthday.

They eventually landed in Derry, N.H., where they bought a weekly newspaper.  In the early years, it was her teacher's salary that sometimes covered the paper's payroll.  She taught English at Pinkerton Academy, where poet Robert Frost once taught, and where she memorized all of Frost's well-known work.

Lillian and Conrad had a busy life in Derry, with careers, children, horses, and dogs and weeks-long paddles along the Allagash River.  When she turned 50, Lil took leave for a year-long cruise in their sailboat, the Queen Bee, down the east coast and around the Caribbean.

The Quimbys retired in 1987 to Kittery Point, where they built a house overlooking the Isles of Shoals.  Lil kept busy in her flower gardens, taking cargo ship cruises and doting on her visiting grandchildren.  Her husband died in 1997.

She vowed never to move and she didn't.

Lillian was president of the Kittery Garden Club and volunteered at Odiorne Point State Park and Rice Public Library.  She attended the First Congregational Church of Kittery Point.  In later life, she loved doing the New York Times crossword puzzle, taking rides in the countryside and patting her Maine coon cat.

She is survived by her children and their spouses: Gay Auerbach of Berkeley, CA, Elsbeth Quimby of South Portland and Curtis Quimby of Barrington, N.H., six grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.

Her remains will be buried this summer with her husband's at the Plainfield Plain Cemetery in Plainfield, New Hampshire. Donations in Lillian's name should go to the First Congregational Church of Kittery Point, 23 Pepperrell Road, Kittery Point, Maine, 03905.  To leave online condolences please visit www.jspelkeyfuneralhome.com .  Care for the Quimby family has been entrusted to the JS Pelkey & Son Funeral Home.