ELLSWORTH – Hancock County’s treasurer and a former town manager in three eastern Maine towns has died after a battle with cancer.

Sally Crowley died on Tuesday at her home in the Gouldsboro village of Corea, according to colleagues. She was 69.

Crowley, who served as the county’s treasurer since being elected in 2002, had been sick for a year and a half, Hancock County Clerk Cynthia Deprenger said Wednesday. Crowley last worked on Sept. 23, Deprenger said, when she had a midday doctor’s appointment.

“She thought she was coming back [to work] that day,” Deprenger said. “During that year and a half, she was here almost every day.”

Deprenger said that when she became county clerk in 2006, she adopted Crowley as a mentor and they quickly became good friends.

“We’re a pretty close-knit group here,” Deprenger said, referring to the county employees. “She kept us in line. She would tell us off and then tell us she loved us. She was good for us and good for the county.”

Ken Shea, chairman of the county commission, said Crowley helped make the county’s finances more efficient, such as by outsourcing the county payroll to a local bank. She was well-liked and respected in her job, he said.

“She was extremely competent,” Shea said. “We were fortunate we got someone elected who had her qualifications.”

County commissioner Percy “Joe” Brown said Wednesday that he and Crowley overlapped in county government for only a couple of years, but that he had a good working relationship with her. He said by working with her, he quickly learned that Crowley was courteous but also could be firm in her positions.

“She reminded me a lot of my mother,” he said. “When you got out of line, she got a look as if she was ready to go to the pantry to get a wooden spoon.

“She’ll be greatly missed by us here,” Brown said.

According to Deprenger, state law calls for Deputy Treasurer Renee Atwater to serve as county treasurer until Gov. John Baldacci makes a new appointment. She said that because Crowley was a Democrat, the county Democratic committee will have to hold a caucus to make a nomination to the governor for someone to serve out the rest of Crowley’s term, which expires in 2010.

Before becoming the county’s treasurer, Crowley served as town manager of Gouldsboro for nearly eight years, until the end of 1995. She later served shorter stints as town manager in other towns, first in Machias and then in Winter Harbor.

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