Obituary for Muriel T. Lindquist
Southwest Harbor
Muriel T. (McMahon) Lindquist
Muriel, 102, passed away peacefully at sunrise on Sunday, February 12, 2023, at her home in Southwest Harbor, with family by her side.
Muriel was born December 16, 1920, in Jersey City, New Jersey, to Aloysius McMahon and Anna (Fitzgerald) McMahon. She had four siblings; Bob, Betty, Natalie, and Jean, all of whom predeceased her.
The McMahons had a vacation home on the Rockaway River in Boonton, New Jersey, where Anna moved the family after the death of Muriel’s father in 1941. Muriel first met “Lindy” (Warren T. Lindquist,) her husband-to-be, there in Boonton as a little girl. The friendship grew throughout their childhood summers together and deepened once Muriel was in Boonton year round.
Muriel was an outstanding student and athlete at both St. Aloysius Academy, class of 1937, in Jersey city, where she was known as “Mac” and Marymount College in Tarrytown, New York, class of 1941, where classmates called her “SI” for the stars in her eyes when she spoke about the man she told them would be her husband one day (Yes - Lindy) and where she captained the basketball team, polished her famous dance skills and graduated with honors with a major in biology. Muriel’s intention to follow with medical school was thwarted by her father’s death and the advent of World War II. Little known fact: Muriel was a phlebotomist for a time during “The War.”
World War II necessitated a long-distance romance, but on December 7, 1944, Muriel and Lindy finally married at Fort Benning, Georgia, during Lindy’s brief leave while transferring from the Pacific to Paris, France.
After the War, Muriel and Lindy started their family; living first in Boonton, then briefly in Long Island, New York, before settling in Millwood, New York, where they raised their 10 children. Muriel’s siblings lived nearby for the early years of raising their families, allowing for close friendships among their children,” the cousins,” which continue today. Muriel’s Thanksgiving tables often included 30 or more. All family.
Family vacations in Seal Harbor, Maine, started soon after, in the summer of 1949, and Muriel and Lindy made it their year-round home in 1974. In Seal Harbor, they became members of the Harbor Club and the Seal Harbor Yacht Club and made many lifelong friends.
Muriel found Seal Harbor to be idyllic and, over decades of summers and many vacations, weddings and reunions, shared her home and her love of outdoors and adventure in her favorite setting with her children, grandchildren, great grandchildren and their families, passing on her love of it all to all of them. Many have made their homes in Maine, most on Mt. Desert Island. The rest are constant visitors to MDI still.
Muriel was known all her life as an active, athletic woman, a remarkable, generous, and prolific cook and a fascinating, well-read companion, who loved dancing, hiking, gardening, and playing tennis (into her 90s) and making friends of all ages to share those pleasures. Muriel designed and built the Seal Harbor house on Seaside Lane, where her passions for gardening, cooking, outdoor life, tennis, and many friendships bloomed. Lindy was still working in New York and Washington, DC, some of those years, but Muriel and Lindy did finally get to share several years of contented retirement in Seal Harbor. They even lived the snowbird life for a few years, visiting Grand Cayman Island or Southwest Florida during the coldest of Maine’s winter, walking beaches for hours on end and looking for the next perfect seafood dinner.
During her many years in Seal Harbor, Muriel volunteered at the Wild Gardens of Acadia and supported several local organizations, again making friends for life. In her 60s, she joined her good friend and nascent farmer in manually clearing pasture with her own chainsaw, attending “cattle school” together and eventually breeding national award-winning Simmental cattle.
Mother to all the world, she loved and welcomed her nieces and nephews, children’s friends and so many others along the years. Muriel’s friends were legion. Famously, she once fed and sheltered, with great aplomb and pleasure, 34 hungry college friends of one son who had arrived, unannounced and hungry, en route to a concert in the city. Some of those “kids” became her lifelong friends. There are so many stories. And so many friends. Too many to include here, but a wealth of memories for all who knew her.
After Lindy’s death in 2003, Muriel moved across the island to Southwest Harbor where she had year-round family and lived until her death. Until late into her 10th decade Muriel traveled the world far and wide, with some of her most exotic trips coming in her 80s and 90s. Her adventures took her canoeing down the Allagash, camping out with friends on St. John, USVI, sailing the St. Lawrence, cruising on the Amazon, exploring city and country in Chile, visiting Morocco, Paris and so many other exciting ports of call.
In 2014, Muriel was joined at her home in Southwest Harbor by her daughter Diana (Dizey) Lindquist, who was her devoted companion and caregiver. The last several years, Connie Tinker came into their lives as a loving friend and invaluable caregiver. Together, they gave Muriel a comfortable and contented ending to her remarkable life. All of Muriel’s children and so many friends and helpers kept life interesting for Muriel in her waning years and she loved and appreciated them all.
Muriel was predeceased by her husband, Warren T. Lindquist, as well as by her parents, Aloysius and Anna McMahon and siblings Robert McMahon (Barbara,) Margaret Elizabeth Corrigan (Edward,) Natalie Tansey (Robert) and Jean. She is survived by son Michael; son John (Kathleen); son David (Alice Kearins); daughter Joanne (Thomas) Bresnahan; son Brian (David Schmidt); daughter Diana; son Peter (Devereux Hopkins); daughter Nancy (Jim) O’Neal; son James (Elizabeth G.); son Eric (Robin); grandchildren Heather, Tana, Marilyn, Erika, Dana, Sarah, Bekka, Jesse, Karin, Daniel, Anna, and Robert; and great grandchildren Danielle, Damien, Lita, Lilly, Patrick, Elise, Meara, Murielle, Quentin and Aidan.
In lieu of flowers, please make a donation to Friends in Action, PO Box 1446, Ellsworth, ME 04605, The Mt. Desert Land and Garden Preserve, PO Box 208, Seal Harbor, ME 04675; or to the charity of your choice. No services are planned. The family will have a private celebration of Muriel’s life at a later date.
Condolences may be expressed at www.jordanfernald.com
Muriel T. (McMahon) Lindquist
Muriel, 102, passed away peacefully at sunrise on Sunday, February 12, 2023, at her home in Southwest Harbor, with family by her side.
Muriel was born December 16, 1920, in Jersey City, New Jersey, to Aloysius McMahon and Anna (Fitzgerald) McMahon. She had four siblings; Bob, Betty, Natalie, and Jean, all of whom predeceased her.
The McMahons had a vacation home on the Rockaway River in Boonton, New Jersey, where Anna moved the family after the death of Muriel’s father in 1941. Muriel first met “Lindy” (Warren T. Lindquist,) her husband-to-be, there in Boonton as a little girl. The friendship grew throughout their childhood summers together and deepened once Muriel was in Boonton year round.
Muriel was an outstanding student and athlete at both St. Aloysius Academy, class of 1937, in Jersey city, where she was known as “Mac” and Marymount College in Tarrytown, New York, class of 1941, where classmates called her “SI” for the stars in her eyes when she spoke about the man she told them would be her husband one day (Yes - Lindy) and where she captained the basketball team, polished her famous dance skills and graduated with honors with a major in biology. Muriel’s intention to follow with medical school was thwarted by her father’s death and the advent of World War II. Little known fact: Muriel was a phlebotomist for a time during “The War.”
World War II necessitated a long-distance romance, but on December 7, 1944, Muriel and Lindy finally married at Fort Benning, Georgia, during Lindy’s brief leave while transferring from the Pacific to Paris, France.
After the War, Muriel and Lindy started their family; living first in Boonton, then briefly in Long Island, New York, before settling in Millwood, New York, where they raised their 10 children. Muriel’s siblings lived nearby for the early years of raising their families, allowing for close friendships among their children,” the cousins,” which continue today. Muriel’s Thanksgiving tables often included 30 or more. All family.
Family vacations in Seal Harbor, Maine, started soon after, in the summer of 1949, and Muriel and Lindy made it their year-round home in 1974. In Seal Harbor, they became members of the Harbor Club and the Seal Harbor Yacht Club and made many lifelong friends.
Muriel found Seal Harbor to be idyllic and, over decades of summers and many vacations, weddings and reunions, shared her home and her love of outdoors and adventure in her favorite setting with her children, grandchildren, great grandchildren and their families, passing on her love of it all to all of them. Many have made their homes in Maine, most on Mt. Desert Island. The rest are constant visitors to MDI still.
Muriel was known all her life as an active, athletic woman, a remarkable, generous, and prolific cook and a fascinating, well-read companion, who loved dancing, hiking, gardening, and playing tennis (into her 90s) and making friends of all ages to share those pleasures. Muriel designed and built the Seal Harbor house on Seaside Lane, where her passions for gardening, cooking, outdoor life, tennis, and many friendships bloomed. Lindy was still working in New York and Washington, DC, some of those years, but Muriel and Lindy did finally get to share several years of contented retirement in Seal Harbor. They even lived the snowbird life for a few years, visiting Grand Cayman Island or Southwest Florida during the coldest of Maine’s winter, walking beaches for hours on end and looking for the next perfect seafood dinner.
During her many years in Seal Harbor, Muriel volunteered at the Wild Gardens of Acadia and supported several local organizations, again making friends for life. In her 60s, she joined her good friend and nascent farmer in manually clearing pasture with her own chainsaw, attending “cattle school” together and eventually breeding national award-winning Simmental cattle.
Mother to all the world, she loved and welcomed her nieces and nephews, children’s friends and so many others along the years. Muriel’s friends were legion. Famously, she once fed and sheltered, with great aplomb and pleasure, 34 hungry college friends of one son who had arrived, unannounced and hungry, en route to a concert in the city. Some of those “kids” became her lifelong friends. There are so many stories. And so many friends. Too many to include here, but a wealth of memories for all who knew her.
After Lindy’s death in 2003, Muriel moved across the island to Southwest Harbor where she had year-round family and lived until her death. Until late into her 10th decade Muriel traveled the world far and wide, with some of her most exotic trips coming in her 80s and 90s. Her adventures took her canoeing down the Allagash, camping out with friends on St. John, USVI, sailing the St. Lawrence, cruising on the Amazon, exploring city and country in Chile, visiting Morocco, Paris and so many other exciting ports of call.
In 2014, Muriel was joined at her home in Southwest Harbor by her daughter Diana (Dizey) Lindquist, who was her devoted companion and caregiver. The last several years, Connie Tinker came into their lives as a loving friend and invaluable caregiver. Together, they gave Muriel a comfortable and contented ending to her remarkable life. All of Muriel’s children and so many friends and helpers kept life interesting for Muriel in her waning years and she loved and appreciated them all.
Muriel was predeceased by her husband, Warren T. Lindquist, as well as by her parents, Aloysius and Anna McMahon and siblings Robert McMahon (Barbara,) Margaret Elizabeth Corrigan (Edward,) Natalie Tansey (Robert) and Jean. She is survived by son Michael; son John (Kathleen); son David (Alice Kearins); daughter Joanne (Thomas) Bresnahan; son Brian (David Schmidt); daughter Diana; son Peter (Devereux Hopkins); daughter Nancy (Jim) O’Neal; son James (Elizabeth G.); son Eric (Robin); grandchildren Heather, Tana, Marilyn, Erika, Dana, Sarah, Bekka, Jesse, Karin, Daniel, Anna, and Robert; and great grandchildren Danielle, Damien, Lita, Lilly, Patrick, Elise, Meara, Murielle, Quentin and Aidan.
In lieu of flowers, please make a donation to Friends in Action, PO Box 1446, Ellsworth, ME 04605, The Mt. Desert Land and Garden Preserve, PO Box 208, Seal Harbor, ME 04675; or to the charity of your choice. No services are planned. The family will have a private celebration of Muriel’s life at a later date.
Condolences may be expressed at www.jordanfernald.com