ROSEMARY BALDACCI

The cliche, made famous again not many years ago by a Democratic leader, is that it takes a village to raise a child. In Bangor, Rosemary Baldacci, who died Tuesday at age 74, could take pride in knowing that her children help to raise a village. Her life, reflected publicly in the family restaurant Momma Baldacci’s and in her family itself that served extensively in elected office and community organizations, stands as a tribute to perseverance, generosity and sense of civic duty.

Rosemary Karam was born in Waterville in 1928. She moved to Bangor when young, worked briefly at the Bangor Daily News and married Robert E. Baldacci, whom she met in his family’s restaurant, the Baltimore. Mr. Baldacci, who died in 1993, was well known for his service in politics and in the community. Running for his fourth term on the Bangor City Council in 1972, he offered a comment about the city generally that seemed to perfectly sum up his and Rosemary Baldacci’s belief in family.

“We must realign our thinking to include the needs and desires of our younger generation,” he said. “We have cursed the darkness for too long. They are our potential wealth.”

More important than the titles they have held – son John Baldacci, the member of Congress for Maine’s 2nd District, is running for governor, three of the eight Baldacci children have served on the City Council, another is a county commissioner – is their commitment to service. Their names pop up on any number of boards, charities and local fund-raisers. Impromptu Democratic debates (some respected Republicans have been regular visitors as well) at the family restaurant are legendary, and it is the unwise Democratic candidate who fails to stop at the restaurant early on to be thoroughly vetted.

Oddly, it was a large-scale example of community service gone wrong (not of their own making) that cost the family dearly. Urban Renewal was supposed to provide new opportunities for development in cities, and the Baldacci family, expecting in 1972 that their new Baldacci’s Restaurant would sit near hotels and office buildings, instead found themselves with an oversized solitary sentinel at one end of a government-wrecked city. The family, through hard work, local help and cohesiveness, eventually recovered financially and in the process offered tough examples of both cooperation and the limits of government wisdom.

Families like this do not just happen, and though Mrs. Baldacci was a private person, her effect on her family is felt across the region. In their present grief Mrs. Baldacci’s sons and daughters might take some comfort in knowing that the values she passed to them are very much alive in a city deeply appreciative of the lessons their mother taught.