Anita Maestas

Longtime Newtown Bee Antiques And The Arts Weekly Office Manager

Anita (Scott) Maestas, 89, of Southbury, died September 5, at the Southington Care Center. She was the widow of David L. Maestas. Mrs Maestas was born November 11, 1919, in West Haven, a daughter of Mary (Sweeney) and Leon Scott.

She was the office manager for The Newtown Bee Antiques and The Arts Weekly from March 1971 until her retirement in October 2004.

“Anita was hired back in 1971 by my father to work in our classified department,” said Newtown Bee editor and publisher R. Scudder Smith, “but soon was moved to head advertising when we started Antiques and The Arts Weekly. It was one of the best moves we ever made, as Anita held that department together for more than 25 year and became the real backbone of the paper. She was known and appreciated far and wide by auctioneers, show managers, and dealers for her pleasant manner and strict deadlines.”

George Foster, an auctioneer from Epsom, N.H., remembers Mrs Maestas as “a special person who always took an interest in us and did her best to help us grow. She was quite a person, and when we put an ad in her hands it always came out right, so we never asked for a proof. When we called her, she made us feel like the most important person she worked with. Truly,” he said, “she was a great lady.”

“The Canton Barn’s friendship with Anita goes back to ‘day one’ when my father, John Wacht, placed his first ad with a new newspaper called Antiques and The Arts Weekly,” said Richard Wacht, who along with Susan Wacht of Canton Barn LLC in Canton remembered Mrs Maestas this week. “Anita Maestas was the ‘go to’ person at The Bee for antiques advertising — long before Fed Ex overnight deliveries and the digital age. During our weekly visits with her, Anita would relax her business demeanor, showing us her gentle nature and sense of humor. We hold many fond memories of those times. The antiques community, and the world, has lost a kind spirit and a caring individual. Anita was a grand lady in every sense of the word. She will be missed by many,” said the Wachts. 

Steve Gero of Old Village Antiques, Avon, a longtime friend of Mrs Maestas’s, noted that “She was sweet, always helpful, and when things seemed to be going badly, she was never rattled, but cool as a cucumber. She never had a bad word to say about anyone and was one of the nicest people I have ever met.”

“Anita was such a wonderful person to work with,” show manager Marilyn Gould of Wilton said. “She put up with my last minute visits to the office with ads, constantly reminded me of deadlines, and was always pleasant about it. I really loved her for it.”

Also from Wilton, antiques dealer Peter Warren, a frequent visitor at The Bee with advertising, found Anita welcoming, and said, “We became very good friends over the years. She was a great asset to the paper and cared for its advertisers. In my case, she made many helpful and wonderful suggestions for my ads, improving on my copy every time. She was a very sweet person.”

Mr Smith recalled that Mrs Maestas’s day started shortly after 6 am and generally ended about 12 hours later, with a very short lunch in the middle. “And she would not take a vacation until she knew all bases had been covered properly while she was going to be away,” he said. “Anita was a great listener, always sympathetic to the problems of both fellow workers and advertisers who called her regularly,” Mr Smith said.

Mrs Maestas loved traveling with her family by car, and was lovingly cared for by her niece, Janice Hager and her husband, Anthony, of Cheshire. A brother-in-law and several nephews also survive Mrs Maestas.

A Mass of Christian Burial was held September 9 in Southbury. Burial was in Pine Hill Cemetery, Southbury.

Memorial contributions may be made to the charity of the donor’s choice.

The Newtown Bee        September 11, 2009