Judith Ann Skillin, of Yarmouth, passed away peacefully with her family by her side at home in Brentwood Manor on Oct. 6.
Judy was born in Portland on April 17, 1939 to Pauline Agnes (Chappin) Warren and Franklin Johnson Skillin. Her brother Silas was five years old at the time of her birth.
During the Great Depression and throughout WWII, the Skillin family lived in Portland’s Deering neighborhood. While her brother Silas excelled at team sports, Judy loved swimming; weekends were spent swimming with her grandfather Silas Skillin in Cape Elizabeth.
After WWII, the family moved to a farm in Alna. Judy left her friends and school at age 11 and began sixth grade at the Alna Center Schoolhouse, the second oldest one-room schoolhouse in the United States.
As her father was a Master Mason and her mother, a member of the Eastern Star, Judy joined the International Order of the Rainbow for Girls, a Masonic youth service organization. She graduated from Wiscasset High School in a class of twelve. Always patriotic, she would recall with great satisfaction her senior class trip to Washington D.C.
Although she imagined she might become a nurse, Judy also had a love of math and went on to train on the Comptometer, an early link between the mechanical and electronic calculator – one of the first computers. She moved to Bramhall Square in Portland and began her work in the Dietary Department at Maine Medical Center, which she enjoyed for many years.
Judy was a long-time member of the North Deering Congregational Church where she had command of the White Elephant Table at the Christmas Fair for many years.
Judith is survived by sister-in-law, Sylvia; nieces, Kimberly, Tracy, and Leslie and their husbands; great nephews, Alexander, Nicholas, Jacob, and Rory; great niece, Julia; cousins on her mother’s (Warren) side, Carol, Cindy, and Babs, and a circle of close friends.
