Daphne M. Butler

PORTLAND — Daphne M. Butler, 93, formerly of Otisfield died Friday, Jan. 3, 2014 at the Birchwoods at Canco Assisted Living facility in Portland.

She was born on Oct. 6, 1920 at home in Freeport on her mother’s kitchen table, one of nine children of William Stanley and Catherine Libby Miller. Daphne attended schools in South Portland and worked as a welder at the shipyard during WWII. Due to her mother’s health, she raised her younger siblings and enjoyed a lifetime of closeness with her sister, Norma, they were “virtual twins.” She worked 20 years at Pratt-Abbott cleaners. Daphne was a single mother who raised her three children, teaching them love, compassion, devotion and showing them the meaning of willpower, courage and strength, traits they hold to this day. She had a magnetic personality, attracting people and animals. Daphne loved to dance, read, in younger years drive her convertibles and fish with her husband. Cross-stitch was a passion she had right up until her death.

In her younger years, she sang in the Woodfords Church choir and was a member of the Pocahontas.

She married Charles E. Butler Sr. in 1969. He died Aug. 18, 2009.

Survivors include two sons, David Rendall of Casco and Stephen Rendall Sr. of Portland; a daughter, Carolyn Brewer of Mooresville, N.C.; her sister, Norma Buffum of Sanford; five grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren. Some of her grandchildren’s greatest memories were made in Otisfield with Nana, swimming in Pleasant Lake, exploring the woods behind her house and swinging on her old-fashioned wooden glider.

Daphne was predeceased by a grandson.

Online condolences may be shared with her family at www.chandlerfunerals.com

Graveside services will be held in the spring at the Elmwood Cemetery, Rayville Road, Otisfield.

In lieu of flowers, donations in her memory may be made to the American Cancer Society, 1 Bowdoin Mill Island, Topsham, ME 04086.

Arrangements are under the care of Chandler Funeral Homes and Cremation Service, 45 Main Street, South Paris.