Joyce Kelley Butler died at Huntington Common in Kennebunk on Sunday, Dec. 17, 2023, after a period of declining health. She brought us love and devotion, and will be sadly missed. Joyce was born on June 27, 1933, in Portland, Maine, the daughter of Charles William Eaton Kelley and Dorothy Jean King Kelley, one of four Kelley children.
She attended elementary schools in the Portland area before graduating from Gorham High School in 1951. With encouragement from a high school mentor, Joyce attended Westbrook Junior College (now the University of New England), earning an associate degree in English in 1953. She married George Robert (Bob) Butler in Westbrook, on March 22, 1954.
Joyce completed her B.A. in English at Boston University’s College of Liberal Arts in 1955. She and Bob settled in the Kennebunks where they lived and raised their family while pursuing a wide variety of personal, community, and professional interests.
Joyce relished her role as a mother and parenting partner with Bob. She said that being a mother was her most important role in life, and one that she cherished the most. Joyce was indefatigable, enthusiastic, and filled with awe of the world around her; always making time to call attention to the details of the natural world and its reverberations in our daily lives.
“Take each day as it comes” remained her sage advice as we navigated through life. A voracious reader, Joyce shared her love of words, books and discovery without bounds. Writing about family life and her interpretation of current and past events in her life took root in a weekly newspaper column titled Pages from a Journal, published by the York County Coast Star between 1968 and 1979. Ahead of her time, she self-published a collection of 65 of those columns in a book by the same title that is still cherished today.
Historical research, writing, and conceiving exhibits to tell the stories of our shared local history became her calling and her lifelong passion. Joyce became the church historian for the South Congregational Church in Kennebunkport and then curator at the Kennebunkport Historical Society. For nearly 50 years, Joyce worked tirelessly to bring the stories of our shared heritage to the public sphere.
She was manuscript curator for the Brick Store Museum in Kennebunk for 15 years and curator of collections at the Maine Historical Society and the Henry Wadsworth Longfellow House Museum for six years. In those roles, Joyce researched, wrote, catalogued and lectured on a wide range of subjects. She curated and mounted nearly 30 exhibitions related to Maine’s history. One ground-breaking exhibit, Growth Rings: Two Hundred Years of Wabanaki Basketry, Carving, and Expertise and Spirits in the Wood: Penobscot and Passamaquoddy Root Clubs focused on the adaptation of Native Americans in Maine and the artisanship they employed to survive in a changing environment in the 19th and 20th centuries. The exhibit was awarded first prize by the New England Historical Association in its exhibition category and the exhibition catalogue, written by her, was awarded a prize by the New England Museum Association.
Joyce published her writing in many books and periodicals including the Maine Historical Society Quarterly, Yankee Magazine, Down East Magazine, Lady’s Circle Magazine and The Christian Science Monitor. Notable books written by her include, “Wildfire Loose: The Week Maine Burned,” about the 1947 forest fires in Maine, “Kennebunkport Scrapbook, Vols. I & II” and her final, most extensive book, a two-volume history of Kennebunkport, titled “Kennebunkport: The Evolution of an American Town, 1603-2003” published for Louis T. Graves Memorial Public Library by Cider Mill Press, Kennebunkport. The New England Quarterly positively reviewed the book in 2017 elevating it as a professionally recognized history of the town of Kennebunkport.
Local organizations that Joyce worked with have publicly recognized her contribution to local history by establishing the Joyce Butler History Award at the Brick Store Museum, given to a graduating senior from Kennebunk High School for excellence in history and later with the William Barry Award in 2001. Also, in 2001 Joyce was honored as an inductee in the Deborah Morton Society honoring the contributions of notable Maine women. Louis T. Graves Memorial Public Library established the Joyce Butler History Prize in 2013, given annually to a student at Consolidated School in Kennebunkport, continuing the generational impact of her work on youth.
Joyce was beloved and respected as an active and caring community member serving on advisory boards, steering committees, at town election sites and in many church activities. Despite all of this, she made time for family, friends and colleagues sharing her hospitality, generosity, encouragement and playful irreverence when telling one of her jokes with an unexpected punch line to make everyone laugh. Joyce and Bob traveled the world and brought home stories from afar, but the true measure of her life was her care about the daily lives we lead, the simple pleasures it brings, and the grace in being able to see the value in it all.
She is survived by her devoted children, daughter Leslie Butler Roberts and husband Sumner of Kennebunk; daughter Stephanie Butler and husband Stuart Cotts of Stockton Springs, Maine; son James Kelley Butler and wife Maureen O’Neill Butler of Dayton, Maine; granddaughter Sarah Bailey Drake Daniels and husband Chris Daniels of Biddeford; grandson Adam Rogers Drake and wife Irene Villano Drake of Bend, Oregon; step-grandson Sheldon Cotts and wife Kaila Cotts of Solon, Ohio; granddaughter Julia Margaret Butler of Biddeford; grandson Samuel William Butler and wife Emily Hannon Butler of Quincy, Massachusetts, and grandson John Robert Butler of Forest Hills, New York; great-grandchildren Finn Milo Cotts, Jett Meyer Cotts, Asher Villano Drake and another one on the way for the Daniels family. Surviving siblings include brother John William Kelley and wife Georgaline of Ocala, Florida; brother Robert Eaton Kelley and wife Barbara Nerenz-Kelley of Asheville, North Carolina; and numerous nieces and nephews. Her beloved husband, Bob Butler, preceded her in death on Oct. 8, 2016, following 62 years of marriage. Her sister-in-law, Dorothy Jane Butler and sister, Joan Kelley Verrill also preceded her in death.
Joyce and her family extend their deepest gratitude to all her caregivers at home, Huntington Common, and Gentiva Hospice. She sincerely cared about you all.
Visiting hours will be held at Bibber Memorial Chapel, 67 Summer St., Kennebunk on Monday, Jan. 15, 1 to 3 p.m. with Words of Remembrance and prayers at 2:30 p.m. A link to a Zoom option for those who may not be able to attend in person may be found at www.bibberfuneral.com.
At her request, Joyce’s body has been donated to the University of New England for educational purposes. A private internment of her remains in Evergreen Cemetery will be held at a later time.
In lieu of flowers, those who wish may make a contribution in Joyce’s memory to the Animal Welfare Society, West Kennebunk, www.animalwelfaresociety.org, Brick Store Museum, Kennebunk www.brickstoremuseum.org, Louis T. Graves Memorial Public Library, Kennebunkport www.graveslibrary.org, or to another charity of your choice.
To share a memory or leave a message of condolence please visit Joyce’s Book of Memories Page at www.bibberfuneral.com.
Arrangements are in the care of Bibber Memorial Chapel, 67 Summer St., Kennebunk, ME 04043.
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