Shirleyanne Ratajczak-Leaman

WATERVILLE – Shirleyanne Ratajczak-Leaman went home to the Lord Nov. 8, 2019. She had been in hospice care at Glennridge Comfort Care in Augusta for five days at the end of 10 years of breast cancer. For this period of time she was symptom free of the affliction. She passed peacefully in her sleep, her husband Richard was by her side.

Shirleyanne moved to Waterville some 40 years ago and bought a home on Colonial Street, she had been married to Richard Ratajczak-Leaman for 34 years. They have two sons, Michael, 41, of Ringoes, N.J., and Richard, 32, who lives in Waterville.

Shirleyanne was born in Philadelphia March 29, 1947. She graduated from Germantown High School and upon moving to Maine attended the University of Maine, Orono, and the University of Maine, Farmington where she took her Masters Degree in Art History. She taught art at Nokomis High School in Newport.

She was an accomplished artist fabricating hanging weavings that incorporated mixed materials often added by onlookers. She loved gardening and cooking. One month before her death Shirleyanne and her son, Richard, took a motor trip to visit her brother, Stephen Ratajczak, from Virginia Beach, and her niece Carla Mutone, of Chesapeake, Va. She has a brother, Donald Ratajczak, who lives in Atlanta.