Florence, just 16 years old at the time of her father’s death, took over clerking at the Kezar Falls Post Office at which her father had been Postmaster. She then worked as a clerk in a dry goods store according to the 1910 census, perhaps the store her father owned at the time of his death in 1902.
In 1915 she married John Warren Higgins who worked at the County Registry of Deeds and they established their life in Skowhegan. Florence became an accountant with the Registry of Deeds and, with her husband, amassed enough money to be able to make substantial bequests in her will.
A widow and childless at the time of her death in 1984, Florence remembered her home town in her last wishes. Porter was the recipient of several bequests which benefit the town to this day. Honoring her oldest sister, she left stock certificates to the town, the interest to be used to fund the Evelyn Watkins Scholarship to one male and female graduate of the local high school each year. She established the Florence Higgins Beautification Fund for beautification projects in the town and established the Florence Higgins Fund to be used to assist the needy in the town as well as an education scholarship for Porter students, a fund which has assisted hundreds of Porter residents. Perhaps her most important contribution to the welfare of this area was her donation of the property for the Sacopee Valley Health Center which was key to that becoming a reality.
Soon there will be no one alive who ever knew Aunt Flossie, as she was affectionately called, but her legacy will live on in her support of education and the town of Porter.
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