Mary Hathaway, wife of Maine senator, dies

FAIRFAX, Va. – Mary Lee Bird Hathaway, wife of former U.S. Sen. William D. Hathaway of Maine, died of congestive heart failure April 4 in Fairfax, Va. She was 87.

The Hathaways had been married for more than 61 years.

Mary Lee Bird was born in Horse Shoe, N.C., the youngest of seven children whose father owned a dairy farm. After losing the farm during the Depression, the family moved to Akron, Ohio, where Mary attended public schools and where in 1943 she earned her nursing degree from Akron City Hospital. In 1944, she joined the Army Air Corps and was stationed at a general hospital in San Antonio, Texas. In 1945, she achieved the status of flight nurse and was transferred to Mitchell Field in Long Island, where she cared for wounded combat troops returning from overseas as they were flown to hospitals all over the United States close to their homes. When she left the service in 1946 she had achieved the rank of first lieutenant.

In May 1945, she met her future husband who was one of her patients in the hospital in San Antonio. They were married that August.

She and her husband settled in Boston, her husband’s hometown, where Mary attended Boston University. In 1953, they moved to Lewiston, where her husband practiced law until he was elected to Congress in 1964. Hathaway was a U.S. congressman until 1973 and served as U.S. senator from 1973 to 1979.

Bill Hathaway said his wife devoted herself to his career and to bringing up their two children, Susan and Fred. He said Mary also was an excellent bridge player, loved to cook and participated in neighborhood projects.

Surviving besides her husband are her daughter, Susan Hathaway Boydston, of Cincinnati and her son, Fred William Hathaway, of Washington, D.C., and five grandchildren.