Mary (Bacall) Hester passed away peacefully in Lincoln on December 1, 2016, at the age of 95. Widely known and beloved as "Muffin," she was renowned for her steadfast and dedicated support of her church and other charitable causes, and was a devoted and beloved mother to her four sons. She was born in Salem, Massachusetts on March 5, 1921, attended boarding school at St. Mary's in the Mountains (now the White Mountain School), and graduated from Smith College in 1943. World War II took her to Washington, DC, where she served as a cryptographer in the Naval Reserve's WAVES with the rank of Lieutenant JG. After the war she earned a master's degree in social work from the University of Chicago before returning to Massachusetts as a social worker for The Church Home Society in Boston, where she worked with foster children and adoptive parents. She met her loving husband Leon "Jeff" Hester at a dance in Marblehead in 1939, while he was on his "plebe cruise" along the East Coast after finishing his first year at the U.S. Naval Academy. They reconnected after his return from the war in the Pacific, and married in 1951. They lived happily in Lincoln, where they raised their family, for their entire lives thereafter. Muffin had a remarkable life as a volunteer, including nearly 50 years of volunteer service at Emerson Hospital in Concord, over 50 years of service on the Board of Directors of The Church Home Society, and a lifelong dedication to St. Anne's Church in Lincoln. Into her late 80s she was still serving meals at the Pine Street Inn and Rosie's Place in Boston, as well as volunteering to drive other seniors to doctors' appointments through the Lincoln Council on Aging, and she continued her weekly volunteer work at Emerson into her early 90s. In 2008, she was the Massachusetts recipient of the AARP Andrus Award for Community Service, and in 2011 she received both the Joan Schiller Outstanding Volunteer Award from Emerson Hospital and the Lifetime Service Award from the White Mountain School. Muffin was a devoted mother to her four sons, John, Tim, Andy and Mike. She was legendary for her chocolate chip cookies, and in later years they became a hit item in charity auctions. In addition to her sons, she is survived by three daughters-in-law, Francie, Suzanne and Bronwen, and six grandchildren -- Liza, Tommy, Abby, Geoffrey, Mary and Annie. Her family was a great source of joy and pride for her, and she leaves them all with a legacy of compassion, humor, empathy and a love of life. A Memorial Service will be held at St. Anne's in-the-Fields Episcopal Church, 147 Concord Road, Lincoln at 2 pm on Saturday, December 17th. Private interment will be in the family burial plot in Lincoln Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, contributions in her memory may be made to St. Anne's in-the-Fields, Lincoln, MA (www.stanneslincoln.org) ; to Emerson Hospital, Concord, MA (www.emersonhospital.org) ; or to The Church Home Society, Boston, MA. Arrangements are under the care of the Dee Funeral Home of Concord.