Marie Jones Holmes, 95, died on July 21, 2026. She was born on August 27, 1930 to Irish immigrants John J. Wholihan and Margaret M. (Carroll). Her father was a dairyman at the Old Soldiers' Home, her mother was a homemaker. They lived in Washington, DC, and Marie spent a number of her childhood summers living with her maternal grandmother in Cork, Ireland where she became like a sister to her cousins Bill, Jack and Bina Casey.

Marie went to Roosevelt High School in Washington DC, One of her favorite stories was about biology class. A boy at her table convinced her to let him take her dissected earthworm up to the teacher for evaluation because he had done a poor job dissecting his. Then another boy at her table borrowed her earthworm too and they both received A's. When Marie brought the very same earthworm to show the teacher, she only received a B!

Unable to graduate a year early due to one required course, her high school farmed her out for the rest of the school day to work as a receptionist at the nearby Jewish Community Center. She got surprised responses when answering the phone with the required greeting, "Jewish Community Center, Marie Wholihan speaking", since Wholihan is such a distinctly Irish surname!

Her first paid job was in the hardware section of Woodward and Lothrop's flagship store in Washington, DC at age 15. Later, when Marie asked her guidance counselor which Federal agency was the best to work, the counselor advised her that the Department of Interior had the nicest people. She soon found a job there and began college at George Washington University.

After declining several invitations Marie finally agreed to have dinner with an older man at the Department of the Interior. Marie was soon assigned to be assistant to the uranium prospecting geologist, Robert S. Jones. Marie withdrew from GW University, married Mr. Jones in Utah, and finished her degree, now in geology, at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Marie and Bob eventually returned to DC where they both worked at the U.S. Geological Survey until the birth of their first son, Robert Emmet Patrick Jones, at which time Marie left federal government employment. After the birth of their second son, John Kevin Jones, she took a part-time evening job at the Suburban Record Newspaper (Silver Spring, MD) pasting up the paper.

Bob and Marie first visited Eastport, Maine in the 1950's, purchased property there, and began spending summers in Eastport. In June of 1971, Bob took early retirement and convinced the unenthusiastic Marie to give up her comfortable suburban lifestyle and move to rural Maine, indulging his dream to become a gentleman farmer. Before long she was using a party-line phone, canning string beans, baking bread and fruit pies, making fruit preserves and pressing apple cider. The family's meals included many home grown vegetables, as well as fish, clams and mussels harvested by the family. Almost every day, one or more meals featured kale from the garden or lamb's quarters harvested from the intertidal zone. Many years later, Marie would comment on how her family had been eating kale long before it became a fad food. Winters meant a cold house, with the family gathered around the wood stove in the kitchen, the windows covered with vinyl sheeting to help keep the cold out, and the foundation banked with spruce boughs to help keep the heat in.

Marie became a beloved and active member of the community. She joined the Literary Round Table and the Garden Club, and took a job as a writer for The Quoddy Tides Newspaper. She covered everything from local politics, to the 4th of July Navy ships, and she especially enjoyed meeting and talking to the officers and sailors. Later Marie also worked a part-time job providing the Eastport shipping news to the NYC shipping/logistics magazine, The Journal of Commerce. The job even came with a parking space in lower Manhattan, which she never used.

Greatly saddened by Bob's death in 1984, Marie spent time with longtime family friend Oliver W. Holmes, Jr. Soon thereafter, Oliver returned to Eastport, they were married, and Marie's life shifted again. The wood stove went cold, the furnace went warm, and the sprawling vegetable gardens gave way to fields of grass. Marie adored Oliver and they had many adventures, traveling together all over the world on ocean cruises as well as boating trips up the Shannon River in Ireland. They rented small castles in Ireland and enjoyed visiting Marie's Irish "siblings," Bill, Friar Jack and Bina (Coughlan) Casey.

In 2008, at the age of 77, Marie was thrilled to become a grandmother, with the births of Lucinda Piper Freyer Jones (Los Angeles) and Anderson Zihao Patrick Jones (Washington DC). In addition to visiting her grandchildren, Marie loved traveling, having many adventures with her favorite Washington, DC nieces, Patricia Longfellow and Peggy Pacey, spending time with friends at her father's farm in Durrus (Coomkeen) Ireland.

Marie's long association with The Quoddy Tides, first for publisher Winnifred French and then for publisher Edward French, kept her engaged and curious for many years. Marie liked to insist that it was her steady encouragement that finally convinced the shy Edward to ask out the talented artist/writer Lora Whalen, who later became his wife. Marie continued writing for the Quoddy Tides until age 86 when she began to develop dementia.

When this happened, Marie made it clear she wanted to stay in her home, and thanks to an outstanding team of caregivers, Marie's wish was honored. Marie received excellent loving care from Melanie Cummings, Judy and Jamie Stuart, Sheryl Page, Monica Moffett, Kathy Hooper, Alycia Clark and Susan Melanson. Marie was generally happy, enjoyed having visitors, and for a long time continued to tell many of them how good they looked and that they were wonderful. Robert, John and the whole family are deeply grateful to these fantastic caregivers and to all those who made Marie's final years peaceful, safe and comfortable. They did everything - spending many days with Marie at her kitchen table, looking out at the water with her and noticing the tides, the deer and the birds, which is what she loved to do. Their dedication and hard work made it possible for her family to share many more beautiful moments with her.

In addition to her parents and her two husbands, Marie was predeceased by her sister, Josephine Wholihan Klapac, and her Irish cousins Bill, Jack and Bina.

Marie's life was long and well lived. She will be greatly missed by her sons Robert and John, her daughters in law Emily and Carolyn, her grandchildren Lucinda and Anderson, her nieces Peggy Pacey and Patricia Longfellow, Kate Jans and Julia O'Neil; and her extended family in Ireland - Paula Coughlan, Judy Coughlan, and Mary Tekinkus.

A memorial service celebrating Marie's life will be held at a future date, followed by interment at the Hillside Cemetery in Eastport. For those who wish, contributions to Marie's memory may be made to the Peavey Memorial Library, 26 Water Street, Eastport, ME 04631.  Arrangements by Mays Funeral Home & Cremation Services.