Angela Fitzgerald

Angela Ella Fitzgerald, 89, died September 16, 2020, at a long-term care facility in Orono. She was born June 17, 1931, in Heeselicht (near Dresden), Germany, the first child of Arthur Walter Kurze and Ella Hulda Saupe Kurze.
Mom grew up in the beautiful Sächsische Schweiz area of the Elbe River Valley. She attended the local school in Heeselicht from 1938 to 1946. She then attended die Schule für Wirthschaft und Verwaltung in Pirna. Upon completion of that course of study, she was hired by Firma Höutsch as an apprentice and continued her education at die Wirthschaftsoberschule zu Dresden. Upon receiving her diploma in 1950, she continued working for Firma Höutsch in the accounting department until 1952.
But Mom was not happy with the political situation in East Germany. Aided and abetted by an uncle in West Germany, she was contacted by a group of smugglers and secretly and illegally crossed the Iron Curtain to Frankfort in West Germany. She worked for her uncle for a year and then found a job at the American Express Bank.
It was then she met a curly-haired, half-German, half-Irish sergeant, Alwyn Fitzgerald, stationed at Rhein-Main AFB for the Berlin Airlift. They married on February 2, 1954, in Sprendlingen, Germany, and moved to the U.S. in April 1954. Dad left the service and they settled in Northampton, Mass. - a town Mom called home for the rest of her life.
They celebrated more than 61 years together before Dad died in 2015. They were a true team, working together on their tree farm, Covered Bridge Christmas Tree Farm in Conway, and maintaining not only their home, but also their rental property. They loved their time at Rehwinkel, their camp in Vermont, using it as a four-season base for skiing, snowshoeing, hiking, and swimming expeditions.
Mom and Dad both loved travel: Mom would make the plans and Dad would make it happen. For many years they were Stammgäste in St. Martin bei Lofer in Austria-Mom proudly wore her 25 year pin on her loden vest. She loved their skiing and hiking trips throughout Europe , hiking in Washington and Oregon, and family visits to Wisconsin and Maine.
Mom was active in the Florence Congregational Church, teaching Sunday School and serving on the Board of Christian Education. She taught sewing and tailoring classes at Smith Vocational School. She was also a long-term substitute at Easthampton High School in their German and Home Economics departments. She was an amazingly talented, charming, witty, and intelligent woman.
In addition to her parents and her husband, she was predeceased by her sisters-in-law, Rosel Kurze and Albina Fitzgerald; and brothers-in-law, William and James Fitzgerald. She is survived by her children, Rebecca and her husband, Daniel Dauphinee, of Glenburn, Maine, Alwyn (Fitz) Fitzgerald and his wife, Kate, of Madison, Wisconsin; grandchildren, David Dauphinee and his wife, Christina, Julia Fitzgerald and Ian Fitzgerald; her brother, Gisbert Kurze of Pirna, Germany; and her sister-in-law, Marian Fitzgerald. She was loved and will be missed by her many nieces, nephews, and friends.
Friends and relatives are invited to call 4-6 p.m. Tuesday, September 22, 2020, at Brookings-Smith, 133 Center St., Bangor. The graveside service will be held at 2 p.m. Wednesday, September 23, at Lakeview Cemetery in Glenburn with the Reverend Chad Poland, Pastor and Teacher of All Souls Congregational Church, officiating. Those who wish to remember Angie is a special way may make gifts in her memory to the Florence Congregational Church, 130 Pine St. Florence, MA 01062, or to the Bangor Humane Society, 693 Mount Hope Ave., Bangor, ME 04401. Condolences to the family may be expressed at BrookingsSmith.com.