Rosamond Doran Gruner, a long-time resident of Buzzards Bay, died peacefully in her sleep on Saturday, August 29, 2020. She was 94. She was the widow of Jack David Gruner and the daughter of John T. Doran and Lydia C. Doran, predeceased by her two brothers, Dean Doran and Steven Peter Doran, all previously from Mattapoisett.
She died at The Plaza Health and Rehabilitation Health Center in Gainesville, Florida, where she had lived since October, 2019.
Survivors include her daughter, Dr. Susan V. Gruner and son-in-law Michael P. Turco of Gainesville. Other survivors include nieces and nephews Toya Doran Gabeler, John Howland Doran, Juliet Doran Rollins, Thomas Doran and her cat, Howland, who is comfortably living in Gainesville with Susan and Michael.
She was born in Providence on October 14, 1925 and raised in Hingham. The family summered in Mattapoisett until her father built a house on Cannon Street. The family permanently moved to Mattapoisett in 1947. She attended Boston University and earned her Master’s Degree in Library Science from Syracuse University. During the early 1950s, there was a worldwide shortage of librarians and she was recruited before graduation to work at a hospital in the Bronx in New York.
After taking a European vacation with her parents, she applied and got the job as head librarian at the U.S. Air Force Base Eagle Club Library in Wiesbaden, Germany. It was there that she met her future husband. Shortly after their daughter, Susan Victoria, was born in 1956, they returned to the states and settled in Mattapoisett, living right next door to her parents and two brothers.
She was employed as the head librarian at Otis Air Force base on Cape Cod, but left to become the librarian at Bourne High School until she retired.
A voracious reader, she could not go a week without eating a proper lobster roll, and was an avid collector of antiques. She owns the largest collection of Sandwich glass in the waffle pattern and acquired one of the largest Mattapoisett postcard collections. Many of her postcards were featured in the book Picture Postcard Memories of Mattapoisett, Massachusetts. She was also a hard-core Red Sox fan, and correctly predicted that the Sox would no longer be a dominant team after her favorite player, David “Big Papi” Ortiz, retired.
A private service will be held at a future date in Massachusetts. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that any donations be made to The Humane Society & Shelter South Coast of Dartmouth, 31 Ventura Dr., North Dartmouth, MA, 02747.
