Anne Marie Stanley

Posted

On the morning of January 31st, the world lost a beautiful, smart, and funny woman.  Anne Marie Stanley, born June 2, 1930 in Salem, Massachusetts, passed away after a short illness.  She was the baby and the last survivor of Maxime and Clara Madore’s ten children and grew up during the Depression and World War Two in Salem’s French-Canadian Jefferson Avenue neighborhood.  She attended St. Chretienne’s high school and then Saint Elizabeth’s Nursing School in Boston, before meeting and marrying Michael Dyer, an MIT engineering student.  Anne and Mike had two children, Michael and Joseph, before his untimely death in 1958.  She married Robert Stanley and moved to Manchester in 1960, where daughters Lisa and Laurie came along.  Anne and Bob shared 42 years of happy marriage until his passing in 2003.

Anne was known to all for her direct and disarming manner of conversation.  She could talk to anyone from a physics professor to the garbage collector, and her first remark or question was often about the listener’s clothing.  She was a card sharp and a Scrabble shark, and the life of any room she happened to be in.  “Cracking wise” was Anne’s calling card, looking for humor in any and every situation, with the ability to make inappropriate comments and get away with it.  

During Anne’s many years in Manchester, she was known for her tireless work on the Sacred Heart Church Christmas fairs, membership in the Manchester Women’s Club (Past President), attendance in Carol Schanley’s exercise classes, and as a stellar kegler in the Ladies Candlepin Bowling League.  To us at home, she was known for excellent homemade cooking every night, her braided rugs, and her devotion to her live-in mother Clara.  Bob and Anne’s house was a warm gathering place for reunion of our large extended family.  Anne’s tastes ran to the afternoon soaps, the old “B” movies, show tunes, popular novels, and the Saturday candlepin bowling show on Channel 5, but she was also a well-read generalist who killed at Trivial Pursuit.  Then there was her love of games: Sunday night kitty whist, bridge club, Scrabble, cribbage, Michigan Rummy, and jigsaw and crossword puzzles.  And it must be said that she was a good sport on the family camping trips organized by Dad, though she might have preferred a more comfortable style of travel.

Anne is survived by children and spouses Mike and Sarah Dyer (Essex), Joe Dyer (Canby, Oregon), Lisa and Joe Willwerth (Beverly), and Laurie and Andy Chlumecky (Manchester), grandchildren Stan (wife, Samantha) and Max (wife, Morgan Danner) Dyer, Jackie and Rachel Willwerth, and Elisabeth and Michael Chlumecky, and extended family too numerous to list.  She was recently predeceased by her beloved daughter in law Rosemary Dyer.  We will love and miss Mom/Grammy forever.

morgan danner dyer, andy chlumecky, carol schanley, clara madore, rosemary dyer, massachusetts, joe willwerth, manchester women’s club, joe dyer, robert stanley, anne marie stanley, michael dyer, sarah dyer, rachel willwerth, elisabeth chlumecky, michael chlumecky