Virginia M. Carr

Virginia (Ginnie) Martens Carr, 97, formerly of Winchester, Mass. and Biddeford and

Kennebunk, Maine passed away on Friday, June 2, 2017 after a long illness. Born in New

Haven, CT on April 6, 1920, she was the daughter of William and Elsie Arnold Martens.

Ginnie grew up in Winchester, attended Winchester schools, then enrolled at Penn Hall

School in Chambersburg, PA where she studied art and interior design, graduating in

1939. After college, Ginnie met her future husband, Richard “Dick” Carr of West

Medford and they married at the Parish of the Epiphany Church in Winchester on January

17, 1942.

During WWII, Ginnie and Dick moved to Ft. Riley, Kansas where Dick was stationed as

a Captain in the Army and where their two daughters, Judy and Carolyn, were born. In

1946, the young family moved back to Winchester where son, Richard, Jr., was born in

1951.

While living in Winchester, Ginnie was active in the Parish of the Epiphany, the Winton

Club and EnKa Society (Past President) - two local service organizations, and the

Embroiderers’ Guild of America. She was also an active member of Christ Church in

Biddeford and St. David’s Church in Kennebunk where she was a member of the Altar

Guild and a volunteer at the Church’s thrift shop, the Budget Box.

An avid birder, Ginnie belonged to the Felix Cutler Bird Club, traveled extensively to add

to her “life list,” and always had her Leitz Trinovid binoculars handy. She acted as a

docent for her children and grandchildren and local groups, walking with them through

the Middlesex Fells in Winchester and the East Point Audubon Sanctuary in Biddeford

Pool where she passed on her love of learning and the natural world.

After Dick retired, Ginnie and he had many adventures, traveling to Kenya, Egypt, Israel,

Europe, Canada, throughout Maine, New England and the US and expanded their

knowledge through many Elderhostel/Road Scholars trips. She treasured the summers she

and her children spent at the summer home of her parents on Lake Memphremagog in

Georgeville, Quebec. Throughout her life, Ginnie lent her artistic creativity to many

crafts and indulged her love of reading and learning by curling up with a good book with

a beloved cat at her side.

Ginnie is survived by her daughters, Judy Preston and her husband, Steve, of Salisbury,

NH and Carolyn MacLeod and her husband, Joe, of Westborough, and by her son,

Richard N. Carr, Jr., and his wife, Ann, of Wetter, Germany. She is also survived by her

brother, Bill Martens, and his wife, Edwina, of Ocean View, Delaware; her five

grandchildren, Sarah Preston and her husband, Ed MacDonald, of Arlington, VA, Abigail

Preston of North Chesterfield, VA, Scott Macomber and his wife, Jynnifer, of

Chelmsford, MA, Ashley Macomber and her husband, Oliver Hall of Los Angeles, CA

and Pamela Schmidt and her husband, Dirk, of Bochum, Germany and two greatgrandchildren,

Phoenix and Levi Macomber of Chelmsford, MA.

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