Alice Bickford; devoted to family, especially twin

Though Alice Bickford outlived her twin sister, Marion, by eight years, the rest of their lives was nearly as identical as their looks and their smiles.

For 90 years until Marion died in 1998, they dressed alike, took care of their family, ran a store, and lived together. They even were both painters; Alice preferred landscapes while Marion specialized in portraits.

"Marion did most of the talking, but very frequently they would be talking together," said their niece, Anna Poehler Schmierer of Morro Bay, Calif. "Alice would wait until Marion was finished, then she would offer her opinion. She was always the more steady of the two."

Miss Bickford, who ran Central Card Shop in Medford Square with her twin for more than 30 years, died of congestive heart failure on Dec. 24 in Saint Elizabeth Manor, a care facility in Bristol, R.I. She was 98 and until three years ago had lived in the Centerville house she and her sister had built on Cape Cod.

Dressing identically "became a fun thing for them, because they were so into color with their artwork," their niece said. "It wasn't so much that they were hung up on being twins. It was more of a visual performance. Probably the big thing in all of the family art was the ability to use color. Any artist, no matter how they dress, it's going to be an issue. Balance, composition, it's sort of instinctive."

Alice Warren Bickford was born in Somerville and moved to Medford with her family in the early 1930s. Her mother was an artist, as were her mother's two sisters.

Miss Bickford and her twin were the eldest of five children and, as adults, began to take care of their family. A sister, Barbara, had died as an infant; their father, Edgar, had Parkinson's disease; and their brother, Richard, had Down syndrome.

"During the Depression, when nobody had much income, they essentially ran the house," their niece said. "They supported the household."

The twins worked for a while at the R.H. White department store in Boston. Then Alice Bickford took a job in Medford with an optometrist.

"He had a card shop in front, and Alice took over management of the shop," her niece said. "Then Marion and Alice bought the shop."

For the next three decades, they ran the shop, painted, and traveled, to Lake Louise in Canada, to San Francisco by train for the World's Fair, and to their lakefront cabin in New Hampshire.

"They kept a sketchbook and drew pictures, and when they got home they would paint what they had seen," their niece said. "They would close the shop in the month of July and go to Lake Winnipesaukee. They did everything together. They never did anything not together."

And that included opening their home to relatives who needed assistance. They took care of their mother as she grew older, and their mother's two sisters often lived with them, too.

"They were very highly principled in that you cared for your elders and your family, and they said that was why they didn't leave and get married," their niece said. "They were responsible for the family. They were the eldest."

The sisters moved to Centerville in 1975, selling their shop and the family home in Medford. After her twin died, Miss Bickford stayed in Centerville until moving to an assisted-living center in 2003, then to Saint Elizabeth Manor. Until nearly the end she was as active as her health allowed.

"You could talk with her about anything and have a lively discussion," her niece said. "She kept up on current events. I remember when I visited her last year, we talked about the Iraq War. She read the newspaper, even though she had poor eyesight. She read it with a magnifying glass."

She added, "We often think that Alice outlived Marion by eight years because of her calm and philosophical personality. She was just a very resilient woman."

The service will be private.