AUBURN – A tireless voice for local news in central and western Maine was silenced Friday, June 13, with the passing of former Sun Journal regional news director Pauline “Polly” Parker Ouimet, 76, who died at her home on Whitman Spring Road in Auburn.

Polly was born in Lewiston, Nov. 18, 1931, the daughter of Beatrice A. (Footer) and Paul R. Parker. She graduated from Edward Little High School with the class of 1949 and attended Bliss Business College in Lewiston.

On May 26, 1951, Polly married Henry E. Ouimet of Brunswick at St. Joseph’s Church in Lewiston. Henry passed away on Jan. 5, 2000.

As director of the regional news department for nearly 20 years, Polly was well-known in the area for her passion for local news coverage and her belief in the newspaper’s value in the lives of the area’s citizens.

She joined the paper in 1966 with the State News Department, responsible for coverage outside of the city. By 1976, she was promoted to manager of the regional news department. She led a staff of copy and layout editors, as well as more than 100 freelance writers who covered nearly every town in Androscoggin, Franklin and Oxford counties, and many towns in adjacent counties.

She helped many freelancers get their start in news writing and reporting, and she had a deep respect for the citizen journalists on whom she relied to keep the community informed.

She was a true newshound. Voices of the area’s police dispatchers, as familiar as family members in her home, blared from the scanner on its pedestal in the corner of the dining room. There, she set up her “after hours” office, complete with typewriter, and the ever-present news clips, agendas and payroll sheets.

She truly loved journalism, from the hardcore police news to meetings to the chicken dinners. She often shared her passion with her small family, taking them along on stories, sometimes pressing them into service.

In addition to a her job, Polly was a wonderful seamstress, sewing nearly all of her trademark classic pantsuits, as well clothes for her daughter and granddaughter.

Like her mother and grandmother before her, she was an artist. In the early 1960s, she studied oil painting with Lajos Matolcsy of Norway. She was also a devoted vegetable gardener who loved the outdoors and the purity and independence of growing her own produce. Over the years, she especially enjoyed the company of cats and dogs.

She was a devoted mother to her only child, Heather Ouimet McCarthy, serving as a tireless supporter, transporter, and source of inspiration to this future journalist.

She is survived by her daughter, the Sun Journal night local news director, her son-in-law Bill McCarthy, Sun Journal transportation manager, her granddaughter Erin McCarthy Donahue, and her husband Dr. Kevin Donahue, of Milton, Mass., and a sister, Delma McAleer of Portland.

Polly will be remembered by the many who knew her for her dry wit, the twinkle in her eye and the passion in her heart.