FARMINGTON – Stories from the life and career of longtime journalist Barbara Niles Yeaton were shared with tears and laughter Wednesday at a service celebrating her life.

The 92-year-old Farmington woman, who was known as “Scoop Yeaton” for her dogged pursuit of the news from here and beyond, touched many lives in this community through her work, her wisdom and her example, her family and friends said.

“This amazing woman had no more than an eighth-grade education when she began a 55-year career as ‘the’ journalist of Farmington,” said the Rev. Susan Crane, pastor of Henderson Memorial Baptist Church where Yeaton was a member. “She and Stanton took the Lewiston paper and even sold copies from a box on their front lawn, on the honor system! But Barbara decided there just wasn’t enough news about Farmington in it. So, Barbara took it upon herself to write the stories, take the pictures, and make it happen!”

Along with her many other accomplishments, Yeaton earned her General Education Development certificate to receive a high school diploma, Crane said.

“Clearly she was a very smart woman, highly motivated and self-educated. She was a hard worker who worked to live, and lived to work.'”

On call 24/7, she slept with a scanner beside her bed, Crane said.

“Barbara was the original multitasker,” she said. “Back when women’s work was in the home, she took her kids with her in the car to cover the accident. And then she brought her newspaper work back to the kitchen” where she typed with two fingers while cooking, almost at the same time. And then she’d develop the film in the kitchen sink, she said as her family laughed.

“Happiness comes not from having easy work, but in the afterglow of satisfaction that accompanies any unselfish task well done,” were words Yeaton lived by, and they were printed on the program for her funeral service.

Yeaton not only covered major events such as fires and accidents, but also the local birthday parties that were no less important to her, Crane said.

“The everyday occurrences of life in rural Maine were significant, too, because they were the stuff that binds a community together,” she said. “Her family and community were top priority; journalism was her connection to the community. It was all intertwined and harmonized by love.”

Barbara Yeaton lived a full and wonderful life, said her granddaughter Rebecca Mills as she shared her questioning of Yeaton’s death.

“Then I realized death was never intended to be a part of life. God created people to be eternal. We are not designed to make sense of it. This is why we feel such discomfort at times like this,” she said. “Barbara Yeaton was not a mere mortal. She was created for eternity.”

She went on to describe history as “his-story,” a story that God is writing about each of us.

“When God designed my nanny he gave her so much creativity and stubbornness that I think he just handed the pen over to her and said, ‘Go ahead, you can write a little,'” Mills said. “She lived her life in first person. She embraced every moment. She was a lady ahead of her time; what times she had! Her story was one of action and adventure. ‘Scoop Yeaton’ never wanted to miss the story. And I don’t believe she did.”

A display at the service included a picture of Yeaton photographing President John F. Kennedy at the University of Maine at Orono. It sat with other photos taken by her and framed copies of awards and certificates, including her induction into the Maine Press Association Hall of Fame and a Life Achievement Award presented in the Hall of Flags at the State House this year. The two books that she wrote were displayed as well as mementos of her membership in seven community organizations.

Yeaton’s camera and bag sat by the photos. For many years, the small-framed woman toted that heavy bag loaded down with camera and notebooks everywhere she went.

“She was determined to get the story,” said Mary Delamater, a Sun Journal copy editor. “As clay in God’s hand, He had a job for her and she did it well.”

In her final days, Yeaton had requested “to have a service of thanksgiving to God” in celebration of her life, Pastor Crane said.

“Saying goodbye on Friday,” said her daughter-in-law, Sandra Yeaton, “she hated to run off but she had a story, an interview with God.”