Cherry Grove resident Michael Guerette died while hiking the Appalachian Trail alone in Maine on Aug. 12. He was 51.

Born in Portsmouth, N.H., on April 26, 1960, Guerette was the oldest of four boys. His father passed away when the USS Thresher sank off Cape Cod in April 1963. Guerette's mother later remarried, but he told Richard LaFrance of "As the Grove Turns" in an Aug. 2000 interview that he and his stepfather were never close.

Guerette majored in theatre at the University of New Hampshire, where he met his first boyfriend. They took a year off from UNH and traveled to Texas and California to "bum around" as he told LaFrance. Guerette never completed his degree. He and his then-boyfriend moved to New York City in 1981.

Guerette periodically worked as a bartender and waiter at the Five Oaks in Manhattan's Greenwich Village until 1986.

He first came to the Grove with another boyfriend in 1983. Guerette stayed at Holly House during the week until he became a seasonal renter in the Grove in 1988.

Guerette bartended at Cherry's for two seasons—he told LaFrance that his reputation as a singer began there. Guerette also sang at the Monster in the Grove and performed at the Tides and the Ice Palace.

He met Scott Henry in 1992, and the two purchased a house on Surf Walk the following year. Henry installed a pond in the back yard—and this project became the genesis for Garden Grove, which opened on Bayview and Main Walks the same year.

Guerette, who was a member of the Cherry Grove Fire Department, also succeeded Bill Rich as the Grove's winter watchman in 1996.

"Michael was my little brother, and my friend," said Diane Romano, president of the Cherry Grove Community Association. "He created the beautiful gardens that surround my house. It has taken him 15 years to finally get it to the way that he wanted it to look... However, I know that he would have moved things around again next spring. He always had a better idea and each year he repainted this canvas."

Arthur Cohen, president of the Cherry Grove Fire Department, also remembered Guerette. The CGFD placed mourning bunting over the firehouse in tribute of their fellow firefighter after his death.

"He was one of the most fabulous people you'd want to know," said Cohen "His ethic of life was of the highest caliber."

Romano further mourned her friend.

"So many of us miss him terribly already," she said. "It is hard to know that I will not see him sitting out on the bay deck at 6 a.m., or hand watering the garden at noon or feeding the fish or sitting next to me at the dinner table. Patricia and I are both heart-broken to have lost our brother."

The Maine Chief Medical Examiner's Office has yet to determine a cause of death.

A memorial service for Guerette will take place at the CGFD firehouse at noon on Sept. 24. A reception will take place amid the gardens at Heaven 'n Earth (2 Bay View Walk) afterwards.