2 Down East women honored at UMM graduation ceremony

MACHIAS – Two Washington County residents whose backgrounds are as diverse as their accomplishments were honored Saturday at the 92nd annual commencement of the University of Maine at Machias.

Clara Neptune Keezer of Pleasant Point received a Distinguished Achievement Award, and Eleanor Sargent of East Machias received a Distinguished Service Award.

Keezer, a renowned Passamaquoddy basket maker, attracted national attention last year when she received a Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. She comes from a long line of basket makers which includes her father, mother, grandparents and six siblings.

Keezer made her first basket when she was 8 years old. She learned each aspect of her craft from her elders, from collecting and splitting brown ash trees to washing and weaving sweet grass. She includes a blend of vibrant dyes and delicate curls in her signature baskets.

Her baskets have been displayed at museums and art galleries throughout Maine. UMM has four of her pieces on display at Powers Hall.

Eleanor Sargent has served her state, country and the world as a nurse anesthetist with a primary emphasis on rural Maine. She grew up on a farm in Mount Chase and spent 50 years in nursing in three states and several foreign countries.

In 1966, Sargent was appointed director of nursing at Down East Community Hospital in Machias, later moving to California where she worked for the next 10 years.

After she returned to Maine, Sargent set up a private practice and began her travels around the world with the humanitarian organization Feed the Children.

She made more than a dozen trips, at her own expense, to offer services in underdeveloped countries such as El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Thailand, Belize, Nicaragua and Brazil, and recently traveled to Romania.

Last year, Sargent was in Nicaragua with Feed the Children after a trip to Africa in 2001 was canceled because of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States.