Beatrice E. (Pfeffer) O’Brien

FALMOUTH – Beatrice E. Pfeffer O’Brien passed away peacefully on July 5, 2024.

She was born on June 25, 1930, to Lillian Bartlett Pfeffer and Roswell H. Pfeffer. Her childhood was spent in Westbrook with her four siblings until the family relocated to Falmouth where she finished her high school education as co-Valedictorian of the Class of 1948. Bee went on to graduate from Gorham State Teacher’s College and began her teaching career at Lincoln Junior High in Portland.

It was at Falmouth High School that she met her life’s partner, Norman R. O’Brien. They were married on July 9, 1955, honeymooned at Niagara Falls, and soon settled into life with children. Bee made the choice to step away from her chosen career to stay home and focus on family life. She somehow merged teaching and mothering and gave those five kids an amazing childhood of learning and nature and teamwork and love. All the neighborhood children gravitated toward our yard with the baseball diamond, lemonade and cookies and popsicles that Bee mass-produced all summer long.

Overseeing a huge vegetable garden was one of Bee’s passions, and she encouraged that love in some of her children as we learned to nurture the plants for her to harvest, can, pickle and freeze to enjoy over the winter months.

Bee was a woman of many talents, and she created beautiful things throughout her lifetime: clothing, draperies, chair cushions sewed meticulously, crocheted afghans and baby things, knitted prayer shawls, hats and mittens, angels and wreaths, lavender wands and ornaments, many of which she donated to the annual church fair. She created fabulous cakes for many occasions.

The Falmouth Congregational Church was an important part of family life. Bee joined the Evening Guild, baked pies and worked on Saturday night bean suppers, always remembering the special bean recipe passed down through the years, helped make the annual Christmas Fair a huge success, inscribed all the bibles, given to each child at a certain milestone, in her elegant calligraphy. She filled in as teacher, greeter, or whatever role was needed at the time. She loved the church community and her many friends there, who continued to bring the church to her when she could no longer attend.

Bee loved her family, her pets, flowers, raising bluebirds, genealogy, her small, neat-as-a-pin home and neighborhood, she loved to read loads of books almost right up until the end.

She was predeceased by her husband, Norman, in 2023; her parents and in-laws; all of her siblings Isabelle Knudsen, Mary Falzone Morris, Robert Pfeffer, Alice Fish, sister-in-law, Joyce O’Brien Everett; and son-in-law, Mark Bickford.

Surviving are her grateful and loving children, Joyce O’Brien Bickford, Eileen O’Brien Wilner (Paul), Arthur O’Brien (Leana Moxley), Thomas O’Brien, Andrew O’Brien (Christine Watson); as well as her beloved grandchildren, Mark, Mike and Daniel Bickford, Emily Wilner, Stephen O’Brien; and her many great-grandchildren, some she had yet to meet; her sister-in-law, Christine Pfeffer; and many special nieces and nephews.

A special thank you to her “favorite” caregiver, Lynn S., and the many others who helped her through her final years away from home, and all the lovely friends and relatives who continued to visit, bring flowers and words of cheer. We were blessed!

There will be a graveside service on Aug. 10, at 2 p.m. at Blanchard Cemetery in Falmouth, for family and friends. A brief reception will follow at Falmouth Congregational Church Parish Hall.

To express condolences or to participate in Bee’s online tribute, please visit http://www.dolbyblaissegee.com