Anne "Louise" Froton grew up in Reading, MA, in a house that was stuccoed, right near the Wakefield/Reading line. It was the way they built the houses in Nova Scotia, Canada, and her father, Peter Froton, had a small farm with a Jersey cow, chickens, and big gardens. Lousie’s mother, Jenny LaBlanc, died when she was three, and Peter later remarried, Mary Albina Dudevoir. Her father owned a shoe factory where Peter worked. She was a forelady (foreman) at the factory. 

 

After Jenny’s death, Peter told Mary Albina that he had four children - ages 10, 5, 3, and 2, and Mary Albina (also known as Ma) said, “I’m awfully tired of working in this shoe factory. I’d like to take care of your children.” She lived in Lynn, MA, which was quite a distance away, so they got married, knowing each other only

from work. Mary Albina was strict and wouldn’t let any of the children wash, dry, or put the dishes away. 

 

Louise stayed at home after all her sisters had grown up and gone off. She worked in a millenary shop (hat shop) in Wakefield, MA, and she roomed with a woman by the last name of Pickering. Fred Luther had a friend named, Burt Ricker, who had a horse and buggy, and he sometimes asked Louise’s sister Lena to go to dinner. Later, Fred and Louise dated and were married in February of 1919. It was later in life for both of them - Fred was 36 and Louise was 30. They had one child, Jean Luther Thompson.

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Fred worked as a mason all over New England and went as far south as Baltimore, MD. He worked on many buildings in Boston, MA; an apartment house in Malden, MA, during the depression; Estabrook Hall at the University of Maine at Orono; did a lot of work in Bangor and Portland, ME; built a large Central Maine Power chimney in Hallowell, ME; and the Richard’s Wing at Maine Medical Center during the Second World War, while Jean was in school at Gorham Normal School, which became later became Gorham State Teacher’s College.

 

Louise and Jean moved to Southport Island, ME in 1936 to take care of Annie (Fred’s mother) because she had broken her hip. Finally, Louise and Fred had a big talk and said, “You’re already here, Jean is in school, you might as well stay.”  Louise was a member of the Union Club and Ladies Aide Society. She passed away on August 12, 1986, at the age of 98.