1926 – 2016
AUBURN — Helen L. Mawhinney, 89, of Auburn and Machias, passed away peacefully on Saturday, April 2.
She was born in Auburn on July 21, 1926, to her parents, Bancroft H. and Winifred Olfene Wallingford. Helen grew up on the farm with her brother, Otto Wallingford, with whom she first attended a one-room schoolhouse on Perkins Ridge Road, where her father and grandfather attended before her. During her childhood, she enjoyed a love of music, the piano and the outdoors. Due to gas rationing during World War II and difficulties with daily transportation to Edward Little High School, her parents sent Helen to Gould Academy in Bethel, where she attended as a boarding student.
After graduating from Gould Academy, Helen studied at the University of Maine from which she graduated in 1948 with a bachelor’s degree in sociology. Both at Gould Academy and later at University of Maine, she developed friendships which she nurtured throughout her life. On the day of her graduation from college, Helen moved to Machias to serve as the sole representative of the Maine Child Protection Service in Washington County, a job which imparted a sense of deep responsibility and caring for others.
In Machias, she caught the eye of her future husband, Fred P. Mawhinney, whom she married in 1950. Later in life, she served for many years as the outpatient coordinator at the Down East Community Hospital in Machias.
Helen and her husband raised two children, Daniel Mawhinney and Jean Mawhinney, now respectively of Auburn, and West Palm Beach, Fla. They recall their mother’s love of music, sense of duty and fun, having been the beneficiaries of her playing Reveille on her bugle to shake them out of bed on school mornings.
Helen with family and friends cherished countless days in all seasons at a remote family cabin on Cranberry Lake in Washington County. There she found peace canoeing, fishing, picking wild blueberries, listening to the nightly call of loons and enjoying spirited games of cribbage. It was there that she also enjoyed nightly forays of skinny-dipping in the lake. She last continued the practice just two summers ago.
She was an intrepid traveler and spent many winters in Florida and Arizona for more than two decades. She often insisted “At the drop of a hat…” on driving herself to warmer winter climates, even in her eighth decade.
Helen enjoyed frequent letters and the company of her grandchildren, for whom she loved to make piles of whoopie pies.
She is survived by her son, Dan; her daughter, Jean; his children, Sam, Ben, Woody and Kate Mawhinney; Jean’s daughters, Andrea Cerbone and Jerusha Hampe; and nine great-grandchildren.
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