Headmistress Mary Crane Dead at 92

Mary Hinckley Hutchings Crane died of natural causes in Durango, CO on April 29, 2007. She was born September 15, 1914 in Boston, Massachusetts to Henry Matthias Hutchings and Mary MacKenzie Beale Hutchings. Her early years were spent in the Boston area with summers on Cape Cod, where she enjoyed her many cousins.

She attended the Winsor School in Boston, graduating in 1932. After graduation, she spent a marvelous year in Paris as a Saltonstall scholar, attended classes at the Sorbonne, and traveled extensively through Sweden, Italy, and Greece. Fascinated with classical archaeology, she went to Bryn Mawr, graduating in 1937.

Classes and volunteering at the Fogg Museum at Harvard College led to a job as Extension Lecturer to the schools at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

On October 18, 1941, she married Alexander Crane at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, Barnstable, MA. They lived in Connecticut, in Barnstable, Mass., in Raleigh and New Bern, North Carolina. Upon his death in 1953, she taught English at Barnstable High School on the Cape. In 1955 she accepted a teaching position at Abbot Academy, a private girl’s school in Andover, Massachusetts. Within a year she was appointed Headmistress of Abbot Academy, a position she held until 1966. She took a sabbatical year in Athens as head of an American sponsored girls’ school, Pierce College. She called this year “annus mirablis” as it included two cross-Europe journeys by car, and two weeks in the Middle East. Back in Boston, she happily taught at the Winsor School for seven years. Her career was completed managing the Boston office of Pierce College. After her retirement in 1977, she summered in Barnstable, MA. and spent the winters in Santa Fe, New Mexico. There she did volunteer work as a docent and lecturer to schools at the Museum of New Mexico. Eventually, she moved to Durango, Colorado.

She was a member of St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in Barnstable. She was a member of the Mayflower Society and the first historian of the Lothropp Family Foundation. She loved to cook, garden, and sew; but mainly, she read voraciously.

Mrs. Crane is predeceased by a daughter, Susannah, and also her husband, Alexander Crane. She leaves four daughters: The eldest is Alexandra Maria Frishman Crane of Austin, Texas and her daughters, Sharon Mary Lang Methven and her husband Bruce of Sydney, BC, Canada, Susannah Simone Frishman-Phillips and her husband Christopher of Commerce, Michigan, and her son Benjamin Adam Frishman and his wife, Mary Ann, and their family, son Daniel Thornhill Frishman and daughter, Mary Alexandra Frishman, all of Austin, Texas. Bethiah Beale Crane, Mary Crane’s second daughter, and husband Alex Tejada live in Durango, Colorado. Her sons are: Randolph Alan Accetta, his wife Antia and son Aric Anthony of Tucson, Arizona, Alexander Rocco Accetta, his wife Hanisi, daughter Kendall Grace, and son Sebastian Phillip, all of Portland, Oregon, son David Henry Beale Crane Tejada at college in Colorado Springs, CO, and step-son Clayton Tejada and wife Kate of Philadelphia, PA. Third daughter, Lucy Sanger Crane Draper and husband John reside in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Their son is Matthew Eaton Draper of New York City, and their daughter Melissa Crane Draper lives in Cochabamba, Bolivia. The youngest of the four daughters is Juliana Hinckley Crane Little who with husband Benjamin lives in Rocky Hill, Connecticut. Their three sons are: Joshua Douglass Little of Miami, Florida, Benjamin Walton Little of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and Jay Alexander Hinckley Little also of Rocky Hill. She is also survived by four nieces and four nephews with their extended families, and four generations of cousins.

A Memorial service will be held in Barnstable, Massachusetts on a date to be announced. Interment will follow at the Lothrop Hill Cemetery in Barnstable.

In honor of Mary, donations may be made to the Mary H. Crane Scholarship Fund at Phillips Andover Academy, 180 Main St., Andover, MA 01810 or to a charity of one’s choice.