09/01/2025
Constance Lillian (MacIntyre)
March, 1933-2025 - August 30, 2025
Born in Adams, MA, on Aug. 25, 1933, Constance Lillian (MacIntyre) March passed away on her 92nd birthday, Aug. 25, 2025, in Palm Coast, Florida, after a long battle with several health challenges.
Connie was the first-born child of Earle A. and Mary R. (Sherman) MacIntyre, who predeceased her in 1979 and 1986, respectively.
At a very young age Connie exhibited the characteristics that were instilled in her by family – hard work, a thirst for knowledge and education, a strong desire to always shoot for the stars and set high goals, and do what was necessary to achieve them. Her excellent grades in high school reflected that set of standards and she won multiple awards for outstanding achievement in oratory competitions. Still, she found time to participate in basketball, cheerleading, the tumbling team, and many other extracurricular activities. She was passionate about everything in which she became involved and always displayed true leadership.
Following her 1951 graduation from Turners Falls High School, and not having the means to attend college, she went to work for a dentist in Greenfield, receiving on-the-job training as a dental assistant, at which she again excelled.
In the fall of 1952 her best friend convinced her to (reluctantly) go on a double date with her boyfriend’s brother, who was home on military leave. He was a strapping 20-year-old Marine and the minute she laid eyes on him in his dress blues, he was the love of her life.
After a brief whirlwind courtship, Donal asked for her hand in marriage and they were wed on April 11, 1953 at St. Mary’s Catholic church in Turners Falls (just ages 19 and 20). Donal predeceased Connie in October 2022, a few months shy of their 70th wedding anniversary.
Connie and Donal spent their early marriage years farming in Ashfield. With the guidance of her beloved mother-in-law, Florence Martin March, she learned to sew, cook, and tend the farm animals.
As with everything in life, Connie threw herself into each task with passion and the quest to learn and master everything that came with that life. She worked hard to help not only with caring for the animals, but also planting and harvesting fresh produce, raking hay in the fields, tending an extensive flower garden, helping to birth a calf, and being a traditional 1950s wife and mother.
For several weeks in the mid-60s she took in four family members who needed temporary care. She would have made June Cleaver proud of how she handled six children between the ages of 2-9, plus an infant, while still doing farm chores and cooking meals.
Connie never lost her thirst for education. In the late 1960s she began taking evening courses at the nearby community college, eventually enrolling in the University Without Walls program at UMass. She graduated in 1977 with highest honors and was invited to lead her classmates into the stadium for graduation ceremonies. She went on to complete her master’s degree in education with a 4.0 GPA.
Connie started her teaching career as an aide at Buckland-Shelburne Elementary School while pursuing her degrees. After receiving her BA, she became a teacher at Colrain Elementary, primarily teaching 5th and 6th grades. She adored her students and insisted that each was hugged on the way out of the classroom every day at the end of class. Upon her retirement in 1991, she was honored for her service with a well-attended banquet and a proclamation from the state legislature.
Prior to her teaching career, Connie was an active volunteer in her community. She was a 4-H leader for a girls’ sewing club (and was an accomplished seamstress herself, having sewn everything from formal gowns to everyday clothing for her family). When their son, Eric, was in elementary school, she volunteered to be a den mother for a Cub Scout group, meeting weekly and participating in scores of activities to develop the boys toward becoming accomplished Boy Scouts.
For several years starting in high school, Connie was devoutly involved in her Catholic faith and was a catechism teacher for elementary school children. One of the many highlights of her adventures traveling with Donal was a trip to the Vatican in Rome and a visit to the Sistine Chapel. She and Donal began traveling with their two children, Donna and Eric, in the mid-1960s visiting historic sites, beaches, museums, and random points of interest in trips by car.
In later years, as a couple, they took multiple long-distance trips to Europe, the Caribbean, Hawaii, the southwest U.S., Mexico, and Canada. Their adventures could fill an entire War and Peace-sized book! Both were constantly absorbing knowledge with an unquenchable thirst while taking thousands of photos and collecting interesting souvenirs from countries all around the world.
Connie was a natural talent at creativity and artistic pursuits and produced many oil and watercolor paintings, home building plans, designed floral arrangements for exhibition with the Arrangers Guild and The Garden Club at Palm Coast, various exhibits at regional and local agricultural fairs in New England, and was extensively involved in the Shelburne Bicentennial celebration, in particular designing all the decorations for the Bicentennial Ball. She was also integral for many years in designing and leading the decorations committee for the Palm Coast Marine Corps League Det. 876 Birthday Ball, of which Donal was chair one of those years.
Connie loved competitive games and threw herself into the quest for winning. Aside from family board games that kept everyone laughing and using colorful language and expressive body language, she and Donal played cribbage almost daily for decades. Her proudest moment was scoring a perfect 29 game one day and she gloated like she had reached the summit of Mt. Everest! Not so fast. . .Donal demanded a rematch and won the best two out of three.
She always loved sporting events, especially football, basketball, baseball, and golf, from youth leagues to the pros. Connie could not wait for the NFL season and was a lifelong fan of the New England Patriots. She was part of the weekly “Family Football Pool” for several years, enthusiastically making her picks every week and trying to outdo the five others in the pool.
One of her treasured possessions was an official Patriots jersey. While Donal and Eric cooked Sunday dinners, Connie was mentoring Donna in front of the TV, teaching her how to watch football!
In keeping with her philanthropic nature and passion for children and volunteering, she served on multiple scholarship selection committees both in Massachusetts and Florida, collected funds for the Heart and Cancer research foundations, and volunteered countless hours with the Palm Coast Marine Corps League at the Emory Bennett Veterans' Nursing Home in Daytona. She was also a member of the Palm Coast VFW Ladies Auxiliary and a life member and former president of the Garden Club of Palm Coast. During their early years in Palm Coast there was a very active “New England Club” that met regularly to socialize. She was always coming up with creative ways for club members to have fun honoring their home roots.
In addition to her beloved and devoted husband, Donal, she was predeceased by her son, Eric, in a tragic 1980 accident. Connie is survived by her daughter, Donna, and son-in-law, Raymond Francis, of Palm Coast; and her grandchildren, Jessica Sachon (Palm Coast), Michael Sachon and wife Vanessa (also of Palm Coast), Angela Francis of Pembroke, Maine, and Brenda Francis Quimby and husband, Justen, of Satsuma, Florida.
She was predeceased by three of her four younger siblings: Mary Adele Palmer, Peter MacIntyre, and Marilyn Crossman. She is survived by her beloved brother, Dr. Donald MacIntyre, and his wife, Dianne, and their family.
Connie is also survived by several cousins, nieces, and nephews around the country from the March, MacIntyre, and Sherman families, as well as her long-time best friend in Florida, Ellen Werner, who was always there for Connie when there was a need.
After decades of being a champion for children, she also considered herself to be an adopted mother to multiple exchange students who stayed in their home for various periods of time, including Matthias Roth and Kai Thomas Roth (brothers from Germany), Kazuyo Hasegawa Odawara of Hokkaido, Japan, and Emir Lewis of Brooklyn, NY., all of whom stay in contact still with the family. Connie’s legacy is her love of children. Her door and her refrigerator were always open and she fervently wanted to make others’ lives better with a warm hug and open ears.
The family thanks the memory care unit staff at Harbor Chase ALF in Palm Coast for their care and attention to Connie for the past two years. It takes a special person to do the work they do. Deepest thanks also to the VITAS Hospice team 229 for their invaluable palliative care assistance over the past month and to nurse Mya for being so caring and tender in Connie’s final hours. Each member of the team treated Connie as if she were their own family member and it gave us a bit of comfort to know how dedicated they were to making her comfortable.
A memorial service will be held in Palm Coast at a future date and place to be announced. Baldwin Brothers of Ormond is handling final arrangements. A separate memorial mass and service is being planned next spring in Shelburne Falls on a date to be determined, followed by interment at Arms Cemetery next to their son, Eric.
In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions in honor of Constance March may be made to any of the following:
University of Massachusetts/University Without Walls
350 Campus Center Way, Amherst, MA 01003-2902
The Mary Lyon (Scholarship) Foundation
P.O. Box 184, Shelburne Falls, MA 01370
The Garden Club at Palm Coast
Marine Corps League Detachment 876 Palm Coast
P.O. Box 353666, Palm Coast, FL 32135-3666.
