Constance Pennington Young, known as Penny, died on Jan. 19, 2024 at the Maine Medical Center in Portland. She had been battling leukemia (chronic lymphocytic leukemia) and was still recovering from a bad fall from her horse in October of 2022, but died of a massive stroke.
Penny was born in Providence, R.I. in 1950, to Hamilton and Marjorie Whitmarsh Young. She grew up in Concord, Mass. and attended Concord public schools. She graduated from Radcliffe College (Harvard) in 1972 as an English major. After working in several different jobs, she returned to academia, and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a B.S. in nursing in 1980.
Penny moved to Damariscotta to work at Miles Memorial Hospital, now LincolnHealth’s Miles Campus. During that time, she bought property in Bristol Mills, which she named May Frost Farm, where she lived with various horses and cats for almost 40 years. In the late 1980s she started the New England Screen Door Co. with her partner, Yvonne Hannemann, in the Bristol Mills Schoolhouse and delivered custom screen doors all over New England.
An avid swimmer, sailor, rider, and skier, life for Penny was often a whirlwind of physical activity. Although hampered by leukemia and many other ailments, she insisted on continuing to care for her animals and having adventures into her 70s. Penny was also an enthusiastic choral singer, and performed with several different groups. She also was a published poet.
Penny is survived by her sister, Brenda Bragdon, of Watertown, Mass.; her brother, Jim Young, of Phippsburg; and five nieces and nephews: Aaron Young, of Boulder, Colo., Jesse Young, of Denver, Colo., Caroline Bragdon, of New York, N.Y., Marjorie Bragdon, of Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica, and Josiah Bragdon, of Oakland, Calif. She is also survived by 10 great-nieces and nephews.
A memorial service is being planned for the summer. Arrangements are under the direction and care of the Strong-Hancock Funeral Home, 612 Main St., Damariscotta, ME 04543. Condolences, and messages for her family, may be expressed by visiting stronghancock.com.
