Miriam Sweet Coombs

Former Newtown Bee

Correspondent

Miriam (Sweet) Coombs, 99, educator, author, and community activist died January 27 at Emerson Hospital in Concord, Mass., following a brief illness. Born in Brookfield, Vt., on January 12, 1908, she was the daughter of Rev John E. and Gertrude (Carleton) Sweet, and stepdaughter of Dr Perley E. Speed. 

Mrs Coombs was a correspondent for The Newtown Bee at one time. She was the wife of the late John Dexter Coombs, a former principal at Woodbury High School.

Mrs Coombs was a 1928 graduate of Middlebury College and taught in Woodbury schools from 1928 until 1956 and also had her own private kindergarten.

In 1956 Mrs Coombs moved to Concord to become a member of the brand new Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School.  She taught until her retirement in 1972. Following her husband’s death in 1975 she remained active in community affairs and was named an “Honored Citizen of Concord” in 1992. 

She is survived by two sons, Allan D. Coombs and his wife, Marsha, of Avon, John S. Coombs and his wife, Barbara, of Macon, Ga.; 11 grandchildren; and 15 great-grandchildren.

Arrangements were under the care of MacRae-Tunnicliffe’s Concord Funeral Home, Concord, Mass.

The Newtown Bee        February 2, 2007