Helena Allen MacDonald

Catherine Helena Allen MacDonald passed away peacefully in her sleep on December 18, 2017 at Legacy Memory Care in Falmouth. She was born on October 13, 1920, in Portland, Maine, the only child of Morrill Allen and Martina Sisk Allen. Her father nicknamed her “Skip” at age three, and it stuck throughout her life. She attended Waynflete, Dana Hall School, and graduated from Garland Junior College in Boston. While at Garland, she met Dougald MacDonald at a Bowdoin College house party, and on May 1, 1942, they married in Atlanta, Georgia. Together they had two children, Catherine and Sally.

During World War II, she and Dougald lived at Pensacola Naval Air Station in Florida, where Dougald was an aviator. She contributed to the war effort along with all others, and, at the close of the war, returned to Maine. She kept a warm, comfortable home for her family, always enjoying entertaining a wide circle of friends, playing tennis and golf, sailing and creating beautiful needlework. She was a member of the St. Mary’s Garden Club, the Portland Yacht Club and the Portland Country Club. She volunteered at the Women’s Exchange, the Portland Museum of Art and on several community boards. After Dougald’s retirement from Burnham & Morrill, Skip and Dougald spent winters in Vero Beach, Florida, and summers in Falmouth and Cumberland, Maine. They loved to travel, making extraordinary trips to Europe, Africa, the Caribbean and the western United States.

Skip was a loving, attentive mother and grandmother, playing endless rounds of Othello, knitting Christmas stockings, and making many, many trips to the beloved “sticker” store with her granddaughter. She will always be remembered as genuine, caring, and generous.

After Dougald’s passing, Skip moved to Oceanview, first to the assisted living unit, and then to Legacy Memory Care, where she made many friends.

Skip leaves behind the following family: Catherine Morrow of Yarmouth, Maine, and Sally Hannaway and her husband, Wyndham of Boulder, Colorado; a granddaughter, Martina Duncan, and her husband, Roger, of Yarmouth; two great-granddaughters, Julianna and Ava Duncan of Yarmouth. She also leaves many nieces, nephews and other family members.

Skip’s family would like to thank Erin Shaw of Coastal Rehab, who acquired the magenta “Rolls Royce” wheelchair for Skip; her faithful morning visitors from PRO Services, Mary and Rhonda; her longtime hairdresser, Linda Lord, for her consistent attention to Skip; and the staff from Compassus.

Thanks are not enough for the incredible, loving staff at Legacy Memory Care, Oceanview for their extraordinary care of and devotion to Skip during the last years of her life.

Skip’s family would also like to acknowledge how much the friendship of Skip’s longtime companion and “best friend”, Jane Woodworth Rotondi meant to her ….Skip’s life was much enriched by this relationship.

Services and interment will be private.

Donations in lieu of flowers can be made to a museum of your choice, as museums were an important part of Skip’s life.

You may share your stories and offer your condolences at www.lindquistfuneralhome.com