About Sanders Fish Market

Earle M. Sanders

January 19, 1929 – October 4, 2008

To honor Earle’s memory, his family would kindly suggest that we each perform a random act of kindness.

Portsmouth – Earle M. Sanders of 54 Pray Street died at his home on Saturday, October 4, due to complications from lung cancer. Born on January 19, 1929 in Kittery Point, Maine, he was the son of the late Stephen Edwin and Queenie (Harrison) Sanders. After graduating from R.W. Traip Academy, Earle served as a member of the United States Navy.

In the 1950’s Earle worked for Jimmy Haigh buying and selling lobsters up and down the coast of Maine. After Jimmy and then his wife died, Earle bought the business. He married Phyllis Hoyt in 1953, and in 1954 they moved to the South End where they raised their three children – Kristin, Jim, and Karen.

Earle was instrumental in initiating the revitalization of the South End neighborhood, replacing and renovating some of the tenement buildings, and at the same time maintaining the tradition of the working port by running a successful lobster business, Sanders Lobster Company, on Portsmouth’s back channel.

In 1980, Earle’s son Jim purchased the Blue Fin Fish Market, and Earle operated it under the name Sanders Olde Mill Fish Market for over twenty years. This past June the newly renovated and revitalized business reopened as Sanders Fish Market and is being run by Jim's son Michael. Earle spent happy hours there greeting longtime customers and old friends from his personal leather chair in the front room.

When the Children’s Museum of Portsmouth opened in the South End, Earle took it upon himself to get the beautiful clock in the tower running again, orchestrating and subsidizing its refurbishing. He and Phyllis also sponsored the very popular lobstering exhibit in the museum.

Earle was a passionate outdoorsman. He loved being in the woods or on the water hunting and fishing, oftentimes traveling to long distance locations in order to do so. Earle’s craving for adventure was as strong as his work ethic. He was a Yankee in the very best sense of the word, living, loving, and working hard. Earle served on the New Hampshire Advisory Commission on Shore Fisheries and was awarded a special plaque in recognition of thirty dedicated years of service to the Commission.

Earle is survived by his loving wife of fifty-five years Phyllis (Hoyt) Sanders of Portsmouth; daughter Kristin Sanders Davis, son James Sanders and wife Gail; grandchildren Mollie Sanders-Laster and husband Eric, Michael Sanders, and Jeffrey Sanders; great-grandchildren Samantha, Noah, and William Laster; brother Paul F. Sanders and wife Helen of Bellevue, WA, and many dear friends and family members.

Earle was predeceased by his daughter Karen Gail Sanders in 1978 and his brother Stephen Edwin Sanders of Skowhegan, ME.

A funeral will be held on Thursday, October 9, 2008 at 1:00 p.m. at the First Congregational Church of Kittery at Kittery Point United Church of Christ on Pepperrell Road in Kittery Point, ME, with burial to follow at the church cemetery across the street on the banks of the Piscataqua River.

Friends may visit with Earle’s family on Wednesday from 4-7 at the J.S. Pelkey Funeral Home, 125 Old Post Road, Kittery, ME 03904.