Carol M. McKeon

HAMPDEN – Carol M. McKeon, 80, a native of the Rockland area, died Sunday, Nov. 24, 2013, in Bangor, after a years-long illness, her husband and family at her side. Carol was born July 10, 1933, in Thomaston, the only child of James R. and Ruth E. (Delano) Huntley.
She resided in Rockland during her early life, attending schools there and graduating from Rockland High School in 1951 where she was prominent in sports, academics, a member of the National Honor Roll, and was elected senior class president. Carol studied art at the Rhode Island School of Design, majoring in Advertising Design, receiving her Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree from RISD in 1955.
She joined the staff of the Rockland Courier Gazette in June of 1955 as laboratory technician, working in photo processing and design. She was employed there for two years during which period she met her husband-to-be, Edward G. McKeon. The two were married in 1957 in Rockland and the couple moved to Bangor where her husband joined the reporting staff of the Bangor Daily News. In 1963, the couple purchased a home and relocated to Hampden, where their three young children were raised and where they have resided the past 50 years.
From 1969 to 1989 she was employed as Art Director for the Dick Bronson, Inc. advertising firm in Bangor. During her professional career she provided design assistance for various uses to hundreds of small and large firms and organizations throughout eastern Maine.
Since retirement in 1989 of both Carol from her two decades of professional advertising and her husband from his 20-year position as Economic Development Director of the City of Bangor, she pursued her art interest on a personal basis, working in oils and various mediums, and was an active member of local art organizations. An avid reader, she was active with the Book Discussion Group of Hampden’s Edythe Dyer Community Library for many years. She also traveled extensively with her husband in England and Ireland and throughout the United States and eastern Canada, and assisted him in the genealogical and history research of his own unknown ancestry-his parents, each, were orphaned at their respective ages of three-and worked with him in editing and critiquing his book, ‘In The Streets Half Heard’ which resulted from that long project.
Highly respected by all, Carol’s quiet intelligence was coupled with a generous sense of humor and an appreciation of the honesty and the qualities she found in her close friends. Her conversations were well sprinkled with laughter and her years where much involved with the activities of her close family. She nurtured reading as an important interest of young children, and was instrumental in them securing a good education through to their college degrees and into music, history and mathematics teaching careers.
She is survived by her husband, Edward, with whom she celebrated their 56th wedding anniversary in January of 2013. On their 50th wedding anniversary, her family presented Carol with a scrapbook of her full life with writings, professional work and photographs. Surprisingly to Carol, it included also a genealogy family tree that had tracked her mother’s Delano family back ten generations directly to Phillipe De Lannoy who came to Plymouth Colony, Mass., in 1621 aboard the English ship, “Fortune,” nine months after the “Mayflower” landed and inaugurated the wilderness colony. He anglicized his name later in his lifetime to “Delano.” She was further surprised to learn that Phillipe Delano’s great-grandchild, Judah, married the common grandchild of Capt. Miles Standish and John Alden of Plymouth Colony fame, making her a direct blood descendant from both historic American characters.
Carol’s love and care for her three children led very early to their introduction to books and reading, and finally to honors and life accomplishments that continued to generate her great respect for them including their professions as teachers of music, and mathematics and work in special education. Her love was expanded to her grandchildren who she taught various games, constantly challenging them to table games such as “Boggle” and cribbage. Their laughter over those table entertainment’s so often filled the house.
Carol is survived by her husband, Edward G. McKeon of Hampden; also by her daughter, Mrs. Lynn C. Winsor and Lynn’s husband, Gary Winsor, of Huntington, Mass.; her grandson, Ross Winsor and his fiancée, Alice Drobna, of Bend, Ore.; and two sons, Matthew E. McKeon and his wife, Krista McLeod, and their daughter, Madeleine McKeon, all of Methuen, Mass., and Thomas J. McKeon and his wife, Dr. Natalie Maida, of Latrobe, Pa. Also surviving is Carol’s stepbrother, Clarence Coffin and his wife, Sandra, of Floral City, Fla., and their three children, Robert, Timothy, and Tracey.
Family and friends are invited to visit 9-11 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 30, at Hampden-Gilpatrick Funeral Home, 45 Western Ave., Hampden, where a memorial service celebrating Carol’s life will begin at 11 a.m. Family and friends, should they so desire, in lieu of flowers, may contribute as a memoriam to Carol to the Edythe Dyer Community Library, 269 Main Road North, Hampden, ME 04444. Messages of condolence and memories may be shared through