Burpee, Carpenter & Hutchins Funeral Home

SPRUCE HEAD - My name is Cam Noel, (my parents, Elsie and Wilfred Cameron named me ‘Marilyn’, but I never felt like a ‘Marilyn’ so I adopted ‘Cam’). Unfortunately, I died on Sunday, June 14, 2015, at the age of 87, after living the past 26 years on beautiful Spruce Head Island, before moving to Bartlett Woods in 2014, and before that, living in Richmond, VA, Carmel, CA, Philadelphia, New York City and Avalon, NJ.

It has been an interesting life if I do say so. When young, I was always good at drawing paper-dolls, so eventually I acquired a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Syracuse University and then went on to a career in Advertising (Thalhemiers, Richmond, Wanamaker’s Philadelphia), then on to the big time; an advertising agency job with N.W. Ayer in Philadelphia and New York, retiring as a Vice-President.

Along the way, I met and married Frank Noel, an architect. After leaving the ‘working world’, we bought a “Grand Banks 36” (a trawler type motor yacht), lived aboard and traveled south to Florida and back several times on the Intra-coastal Waterways. Previously, we had a sailboat we had kept on the Chesapeake Bay and we always loved “messing about with boats”.

We moved ashore to Avalon, NJ, a barrier beach island community. We always drove to Maine in the Spring and Fall because “it was so beautiful.” On one trip, we stumbled on Spruce Head Island and there saw a sad little cottage with a fabulous view. After my husband died, I drove to Maine and the sad little cottage was for sale and I bought it.

Now living in Maine in my no-longer-sad cottage with the wonderful view, it occurred to me “everyone in Maine is an artist”…..I am an artist!!!” So after a couple of refresher courses at the Farnsworth, I began painting and showed and sold watercolors at my friend, Dona Bergen’s, Mars Hall Gallery in Tenants Harbor. That was fun!

I have made many good friends on Spruce Head Island. I must mention members of “The Old Goats” who used to meet every morning at the “Sea Store” for coffee, gossip, and news. We helped and looked out for each other and gave “advice’ wanted or not. “This is the way life should be!!!”

I leave no survivors, just friends. My sister, Grace Robinson, of Syracuse, N.Y. predeceased me in 2014.

P.S. Oh, I didn’t tell you about my twelve trips to England (UK), starting with an ocean liner voyage in 1953 (before the days of air travel) and all the sweaters I’ve knit - all the same but different colors, and the many many books from the Rockland Public Library I’ve read, etc. etc.

At Cam’s request, her friends will pay tribute to her life privately. Cremation arrangemnts were in the care of Burpee, Carpenter & Hutchins Funeral Home, 110 Limerock Street, Rockland.