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Rowene Permilla Orff, 96, went to be with her Lord and Savior on October 18, 2017 at Cove’s Edge in Damariscotta, with her family by her side. Rowene was born on April 9, 1921 in Portsmouth, New Hampshire to parents Rowe J. Stevens and Nellie May Harlow. Rowene attended local schools and graduated from the Portsmouth High School in the class of 1940. After graduation Rowene worked at the Molie Button Factory as well as the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard. Rowene was a hostess at the USO Hall where she met the love of her life Wilbert E. Orff and they were married in 1944. They resided in Portsmouth, New Hampshire until 1945 when they were offered the chance to buy Wilbert’s grandfather’s farm on the Orff’s Corner Road in Waldoboro, Maine where they had lived their entire married life.

Rowene never afraid of hard work helped her husband on the farm with all the animals and the chores that went with owning a working farm. Rowene enjoyed cooking for her family, canning vegetables from their gardens and offering up some beautiful flower gardens too. Rowene was an accomplished seamstress making her own clothes and she enjoyed knitting and crocheting.

In 1960 Rowene worked outside the home at the Paragon Button Factory and Moody’s Diner both in Waldoboro. While retiring in 1965 she never stopped working as she chose to volunteer for many organizations. She enjoyed playing the piano for The Willow Grange in Jefferson, Associate Member of the Nobleboro Grange, former member of the Wiwurna Order of the Eastern Star who then merged with the Lakeview Chapter #179 in Jefferson. She was also a member of the Orff’s Corner Community Church, The Rose Society of Maine and Tops in Waldoboro. Rowene also enjoyed the companionship of many pen-pals throughout the country, she had more than twenty.

Some of Rowene’s favorite pastimes were painting, she won many awards at the county fairs, crocheting lap robes for the Veterans who were in nursing homes, making blankets for babies and also premie hats for babies who were in the hospitals.

Rowene was predeceased by her husband Wilbert in 2002 as well as a daughter Pamela Orff in 2000 and her sister Helen Coakley.

Left to cherish Rowene’s memories are her son Solomon Orff and his wife Connie of Waldoboro, granddaughter Kathy Orff MacDaniel of Jefferson, Great Granddaughter Kimberly Hodnett of Jefferson, step-grandchildren Andrew Roberts of Wales, Nicholas Pushard of Wales and Jacob Pushard of Wales, step-granddaughter Heidi Pushard of Wales and step-grandson Shane Roberts of Thomaston.

A service will be held at the Orff’s Corner Community Church

In lieu of flowers, donations in Rowene’s memory may be made to the Lupis Foundation of New England, 40 Speen Street, Suite 205, Framingham, MA 01701, the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of the New England Chapter, 109 Highland Avenue, Needham, MA 02494 or the Orrf-Achorn Cemetery, c/o Treasurer, 515 Orff Corner Road, Waldoboro, Maine 04572.

Hall’s of Waldoboro has care of the arrangements. To extend online condolences, visit her Book of Memories at www.hallfuneralhomes.com.