E. May Lunt

WINDHAM — E. May Lunt, 92, passed away peacefully in her sleep on Sunday, Feb. 14, 2016.

May (Tottle) Griffin was born in Bath on June 2, 1923, the daughter of Aimee Irene and Ralph Griffin (the Apple Man). She spent her early childhood in Bath and South Portland. By age eight, she and her three brothers had moved to Windham, where they lived on a farm on River Road. She often commented, “I fell in love with the town the minute I moved here,” and often shared the memory of how school bus driver Ralph Lowell, who would be taking her to Newhall School, stopped by “the house” to meet his new young passenger and explain where she would sit and what time she’d be picked up.

May graduated from Windham High School in 1942 and, due to the war effort, postponed plans to study cosmetology to help run the family farm and look after a baby sister.

She married Walter E. Lunt, the love of her life, in 1945. After marriage, May became a homemaker while also helping to establish The Windham Health Council, which provided early childhood health care to all students in the Windham schools, and later became the region’s first medical equipment loan closet, which is still in operation today.

May was absolutely devoted to family and would always put aside her own needs for that of her immediate and extended family. She loved popular music and show tunes and often frequented local theater. She could miss a knock on the door because, while ironing or washing dishes, she would be singing loudly to a song on the radio. “Getting to Know You,” from The King and I, was one of her all-time favorites. May and Walter raised one son and a foster boy.

In the mid-1960s, empty nest syndrome had set in and May became restless. She answered an earlier calling and returned to school in her early 40s to become a cosmetologist. Upon graduating from cosmetology school, she was immediately hired as an instructor. Soon after, she became the manager of Albert’s Hair Salon in North Windham. In later life, May took her hairdressing talent on the road, providing services to shut-ins all around Windham. Many residents also remember her selling berries and homemade jam at the roadside stand of her childhood home on River Road, and later on Roosevelt Trail across from the present day Tractor Supply Co.

May was predeceased by her husband, Walter, in 2009.

She is survived by her son, Walter N. Lunt of Raymond; foster son, Robert Champaigne of Naples; brother, Merrill Griffin of Novado, Calif.; sister, Marcia Grenier of Dracut, Mass.; two granddaughters, three great-grandchildren, many nieces and nephews and great-nieces and great-nephews.

A celebration of life is planned at the Windham Friends Church on Saturday, Feb. 20, at 11:30 a.m.

May often complained that flowers made her eyes run and caused her to sneeze. So, she once told family, “I would really prefer donations be made to the Windham Loan Closet,” a cause to which she was deeply committed.