Doris Gardner Anderson

Falmouth - A beautiful, loving, and generous life on this earth ended January 7, 2013 with the passing of Doris Louise Gardner Anderson, 98 years after she was born to Harry and Inga Iverson Gardner in Minneapolis, MN. Her life was devoted to supporting her husband Clifford, who passed in 2006, and her family and friends. Loved by all who grew to know her, she was gentle, kind, and selfless. Among her favorite sayings, to the end, was “a clear conscience makes a soft pillow”, no doubt explaining why she, always the one to avoid conflict or hurt feelings, never failed to have a good night’s sleep.

Early in her 66 years of marriage she endured the heavy demands of caring for her second son Terry Clifford during his brief 18-month life with severe cerebral palsy. As the wife of an FBI Special Agent she accepted the requisite transfer from her beloved Minnesota to establish new homes in El Paso and then Cincinnati. While raising her family, she was active in scouting and school parent support activities. Upon retirement she and Clifford returned to Minnesota to enjoy the company of family and friends during the summers and then new friends in Clearwater, Florida, for 33 winters. Relocating in 2000 to the Ocean View Retirement Community in Falmouth to be closer to family, they built new Maine friendships and church ties. She was an excellent seamstress and cook. Besides church, her other life passions included gardening, baking, knitting, and exercise. Residing in recent years in assisted living, she enthusiastically participated in social activities such as the “Wisdom Teas” where she interacted warmly with elementary school students brought faithfully to Falmouth House by Holly MacEwan. She and fellow Naughty Knitters completed numerous afghans for Ronald McDonald House and other charities. She walked a mile nearly every early morning until age 97.

She was predeceased by her son Terry Clifford, her husband Clifford, and brothers Rolland and Kenneth Gardner. She was a wonderful and beloved mother to her son Larry Anderson and his wife Janie Nast Anderson in Falmouth and her daughter Shari Anderson Karkowski and her husband Richard in Greenfield, IN, grandmother to six, great-grandmother to ten, and aunt to several nieces and nephews.

A memorial service to celebrate her life will be held at the Falmouth Congregational Church at 11 am on Saturday, January 12, followed by a reception. A burial service will be held for her and Clifford at the Fort Snelling National Cemetery in Minneapolis in May. Please visit www.lindquistfuneralhome.com to view a video collage of Doris’ life and to share your condolences, memories and tributes with her family.

The Anderson and Karkowski families express their heartfelt thanks to the staff at Falmouth House and Hospice of Southern Maine for their good care of her in recent years and at her end of life.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Falmouth Congregational Church Memorial Fund (267 Falmouth Road, Falmouth, ME 04105); Easter Seals (125 Presumpscot Street Portland, ME 04103); American Parkinson Disease Association (135 Parkinson Avenue

Staten Island, NY 10305) or Hospice of Southern Maine (180 US Route One, Scarborough, ME 04074).