Mary Ellen Turner

Mary E. Turner, of Franklin NH died on 12/17/24, just weeks shy of her 101st birthday. She lived a full life by all measures. Mary was born in Hopkinton NH on 1/9/1924. At the age of 17, during WWII, having just graduated from high school, she asked her mother if she could go to CT and help the war effort by working as a “Rosie the Riveter” at the Curtis-Vought airplane factory (Now Lockheed Martin/Sikorsky) in Stratford, CT. Her older brother was stationed at the Groton Submarine Base not far from away and while in port could keep an eye on her. Mary was tall and slender and would straddle the outside fuselage of the Vought F4U Corsair fighters, with rivet gun in hand, while her co-worker worked from the inside holding the anvil. Over the 18-months she did this she could not count the number of fuselages she helped build of these amazing fighter planes for the US Army Air Corp., which helped turn the tide of the war. Service ran deep in Mary’s family, her grandfather a US Naval Captain in WWI, her dad a US Naval Captain in WWI and WWII, her brother a submariner in WWII. But Mary’s life saw tragedy as well, her 1st husband was a US Airforce Pilot assigned to the United Nations. While ferrying UN supplies to Africa in the 1960’s his cargo jet crashed, killing all aboard. Mary eventually remarried to Garth, a US Airforce enlisted man, and they were stationed for a long time at the airbase on Key West, FL. There, Mary and Garth each rode their Harley Davidson’s to the bars on weekends and Mary would often sit with Ernest Hemmingway, she says he drank an awful lot. When Garth retired from the Air Force they moved back to NH and bought a home in Franklin, where they lived for almost 20 years. Mary, unfortunately, never had any children. When Garth died of cancer in 2012 Mary stayed on at the house until it became too much for her and she sold it and moved to Golden Crest Nursing Home, where she lived for 8-years, then later in years to the Merrimack County Nursing Home, receiving excellent care in both places. As stated in the beginning, Mary lived a long life, full of experiences. A graveside service will be held on Friday, December 20, 2024 at 1:00 PM at the New Hampshire State Veterans Cemetery, 110 Daniel Webster Highway, Boscawen, NH.

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Mary Ellen Turner

January 9, 1924 - December 17, 2024