Mary Caltha Stigall Wright

Mary Caltha Stigall Wright, 94, loving wife and mother, died peacefully Saturday, Feb. 7, 2009, at Hope Hospice in Cape Coral, after a brief illness. She was born in Kansas City, Mo., the youngest of four children.

A graduate of Randolph-Macon Woman’s College in Lynchburg, Va., she earned a master’s degree from Teachers College, Columbia University. She taught English in Iowa and Tennessee, then moved to Lynn, Ma., when she married Dr. James H. Wright in 1938. While raising her family she pursued interests in stenciling, oil painting, piano and voice.

In 1971, when her husband retired from General Electric, they moved to the ancestral homestead in Haddam, Conn. At that time, she became very involved in family history, served as regent in the Nathan Hale Chapter of the D.A.R. and earned an associate’s degree in art from Middlesex Community College.

She and her husband traveled extensively and bought a home in 1984 on Pine Island. This home became her permanent residence in 1996. She moved to Gulf Coast Village in 2007.

Throughout her adult life, she devoted her time to reading, sewing, her local Episcopal church and church choir. Both family and friends recognized her love for life and enthusiasm for learning.

She is survived by her sons, James (Ellen) of Scotia, N.Y., and John (Kathryn) of Long Beach, Calif.; daughter, Sarah Neal (David) of Haddam, Conn; seven grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.

She was predeceased by her husband of 57 years.

A Requiem Eucharist will be held at 3 p.m. Wednesday at St. John’s Episcopal Church, 7771 Stringfellow Road, St. James City, Pine Island. Her cremains will be interred in the family plot in Newton, Mass., at a later date.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests memorial donations be made to St. John’s Episcopal Church or Hope Hospice in Cape Coral.

Arrangements by Coral Ridge Funeral Home.