Olive Marie Ellis Daley

SANFORD – Olive Marie Ellis Daley passed away on Sept. 30, 2022, after a brief illness. Olive was born on March 12, 1936, in Newton, Massachusetts to Madeline Hartnett and Oliver Ellis. She grew up in Auburndale with her brother, Roger Ellis. Olive attended local schools and in 1953 graduated from St. Bernard’s high school in Newton. Olive loved her experience at St. Bernard’s, a small all-girls school, where she felt like she had 30 sisters whose friendships continued throughout her life. Olive graduated from Emmanuel College in the class of 1957. In October of 1957, Olive married Eugene F. Daley, the oldest brother of one of her best friends, Adele. Olive and Eugene went to Europe on their honeymoon and stayed for six months to attend the University of Munich.
Olive and Eugene raised five children. Olive was a loving, supportive wife and mother and an amazing role-model for her children, Edmund, Dermot, Julianne, Justin, and Carol. At 30, Olive was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. She survived and thrived with the support of family and friends.

Olive received her bachelor’s degree in nursing in 1975 and master’s degree in nursing in 1990 both from the University of Southern Maine. Her master’s thesis on the happiness of aging women in nursing homes was published in Gerontological Nursing magazine.

Olive was a progressive thinker who inspired others to help protect the environment, to be strong women with feminist values, to treat all people with respect, and to read good books. Olive and her friends started a Montessori-type school, the Barn School, created an ecology group, coached the first teams in the Sanford Girls Youth Soccer league, and established a Women’s Lib group at Nasson College. This group became The Coastal Women’s Group and continued meeting for 50 years with four members, Olive, Norma Johnsen, Marlene Parent, and Kim Massaro. They met most recently this past August on Olive’s front porch for coffee, muffins, and a chat. Olive spent time going to movies, art shows, and taking walks with friends including Lou Kohl Morgan and Ann Brown. She was a true and caring friend who listened without judgment and was a great support.

A Pisces, Olive loved swimming with her family and friends in lakes, rivers, the ocean, whenever she could. She always kept an extra bathing suit in the car. She swam at many beaches on the Maine coast as well as in numerous rivers and lakes. She also swam in five of the Great Lakes, in Massachusetts including Cape Cod and Martha’s Vineyard, Tennessee, North Carolina, Florida, the Salton Sea in California, Oyster Bay in Washington state, at Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupre in Quebec, and the Canadian Maritime provinces. Olive swam in Majorca, Spain when she and Gene visited there in 1957. To Olive, the purpose of travel was to find a new place to swim. She counted the days that she swam each year. She also enjoyed canoeing and kayaking and looked forward to swimming afterwards.

Olive is survived by her five children and their families, her brother and his family, and many nieces, nephews, and cousins.

Arrangements are under the direction of Black Funeral Homes and Cremation Service, Sanford-Springvale.

To leave a message of condolence for the family please visit http://www.blackfuneralhomes.com.

To honor Olive, you can make a donation to your local library in her name.