Margaret “Daisy” Glidden Hetherington, died May 20 in Phoenix at the age of 79. As a child she summered in Newcastle at “Riverside” on Glidden St., built by her great-grandfather William T. Glidden.
Mrs. Hetherington, a daughter of the late Margaret Schulyer and Arthur Boynton Glidden, was born Jan. 14, 1927, in Dover, Mass., and was raised there on the family farm, “Wildwood”, built by her parents in 1916.
Her mother died when Daisy was six and she took on many responsibilities at an early age. After graduating from Children’s Hospital Nursing School in Boston in 1951, she crossed the Atlantic on a steamship and hitchhiked her way through post-war Europe with a friend.
While employed at New York Hospital she applied for the Navy nurse program and to the U.S. Public Health Service for assignment to Alaska. The acceptances arrived the same day and she chose Alaska.
Arriving in Fairbanks in 1953, she was befriended by pioneer bush pilot Sam White and his wife Mary. Sam gave her a parka and good lessons on surviving in Alaska. Daisy’s first assignment was the Native American Hospital in Tanana where she made many friends among the Athabascan people.
She met her future husband, Cy Hetherington, who was superintendent of Interior Airways. They were married in Fairbanks in 1956 and worked in Barrow for a brief period, Daisy for the hospital and Cy for the air company, before the couple returned to Fairbanks to live in a log home. There Daisy worked as a nurse at Ladd Field until son Tom was born in 1958. The family settled in Manley Hot Springs where Cy and Daisy established a general store, cabins, power plant and aircraft maintenance business. She was also the unofficial health aide in the 1960s and 70s and was very active in the Manley Hot Springs Park Association and other community affairs.
She is survived by her husband and son; sisters-in-law, Rose Myers, Jane Walsh Glidden and Barbara Bennett; brother-in-law, Dane Hetherington; and many nieces and nephews, including Tim Glidden of Topsham.
Daisy was preceded in death by her parents; four brothers, A. Boynton, William, Stephen and John Glidden; and sister, Phyllis.T. Glidden.
Service of remembrance, led by Rev. Mary Ann Hoy, 12:30 p.m., Sun., Oct. 8 at the family plot in the cemetery on Glidden St.
Memorial donations may be made to the Gladys Dart School, Manley Hot Springs, AK, or to St. Andrews Episcopal Church, Newcastle.
