1918 – 2016

AUBURN — Celia F. Dunham, 97, died on Thursday, Feb. 18, after many declining years of health at the Odd Fellows Nursing Home. She moved to the Auburn area when her health no longer allowed her to live on her own.

She was born in Prospect Harbor on April 15, 1918, the only child of Irving Darold and Delia Adelle (Noonan) Farley.

She attended the local schoolhouse that was located very close to the farm she grew up on in Prospect Harbor. It is the farmland that the new Gouldsboro school was built on a few years back. In 1936, she graduated from Winter Harbor High School.

On Sept. 23,1939, she married Wilfred Dunham of Swans Island, where they lived until 1942, when they moved to Southwest Harbor. Her husband started work at Henry Hinckley’s boat shop and he remained there for 43 years. Celia’s working career consisted of being a housewife, mother, bookkeeper for Rich’s Greenhouse, Swans Island, house cleaning summer resident homes and cooks helper at the Claremont Hotel, Southwest Harbor. She spent her last 19 years working as a postal clerk at the Southwest Harbor Post Office, retiring in April of 1983.

She was an excellent seamstress, sewing the family many clothes and other items needed by the family. For many years, she made lobsters out of red felt and stuffed the tails with balsam fir. Many of them were sold, some going as far away as Germany and Hawaii. She was also a great quilt maker and loved making dolls of all sizes, of which she had a large collection. Celia was a longtime member of the Southwest Harbor Congregational Church.

Celia is survived by her son, Lawrence “Larry” Dunham and wife, Nancy, of North Monmouth and Zephyrhills, Fla.; two grandsons, Mark and wife, Wanda, of Greene and their three children, Kyle and wife, Michelle, of Auburn, Kristopher and wife, Micheala, of Auburn and Joshua of Green, and Darold and wife, Melissa, and their two children, Addam and Amanda of Northfield, N.H.; two great-great-grandchildren, Teo Dunham and Daniel Dunham of Auburn.

Celia was predeceased by her husband of 62 years on Feb. 15, 2001; and by several close cousins and close longtime friends.

The family would like to thank the Odd Fellows Nursing Home for the excellent care she received the last six-plus years, before that 5½ years at the Chapman House, Auburn, and 1½ years at the Meadows in Greene.

Condolences may be expressed at www.jordanfernald.com.