HANCOCK POINT
Jean Cameron Adams Hillman O’Meara died at the age of 91 at Maine Medical Center in Portland on January 13, 2014. She was born in Ellsworth on July 9, 1922 to Martin Lord and Ines Ketchum Adams.
She graduated from Ellsworth High School and attended Colby College at the start of World War II. During her sophomore year at Colby, she was introduced to Alan Hillman, a track star and roommate of her brother Dick Adams at Bowdoin College. They married and Alan was soon called into service in the Air Force. During the year he was missing in action in Europe, she taught school on Peaks Island, and served as a “gray lady” in Falmouth. The following year, as a young widow, she attended Katharine Gibbs in Boston, graduating first in her class. In 1947, she married Dr. Edward S. O’Meara, who later founded Maine Coast Memorial Hospital in Ellsworth, an effort to which she devoted herself tirelessly. Subsequently, she resided in New Rochelle, New York and Waterville, Maine before settling in Hancock Point in 1983. She was deeply engaged in the community, serving for 60 years as a founding trustee of the Pierre Monteux School, as a board member and lay Eucharistic minister of the Hancock Point Chapel, and ardently supported the Emmaus Center in Ellsworth. Jean cherished her children, her grandchildren and her friends who in turn cherished and admired her warmth and unfailing humor, candor and elegance. She was a gifted storyteller who loved to laugh and make others laugh. She possessed a combination of grace, courage, kindness, wisdom and interest in others that endeared her to all generations, and had an extraordinary ability to make everyone she met feel special.
She is survived by five devoted children: Mary E. O’Meara of Hancock, ME, Ellen K. O’Meara and husband Ken Emerson of Montclair, NJ, Edward S. O’Meara, Jr. and wife Amanda Schumaker of Yarmouth, ME, Dr. John R. O’Meara of Falmouth, ME, and William F. O’Meara and wife Emmelyn O’Meara of Marblehead, MA; and nine treasured grandchildren, Dr . Alexander Lankowski and Matthew Lankowski, Maude Emerson and husband Nicholas Junkerman, Benjamin, Samuel, Quinlin and Caden O’Meara, and Grace and Lillian O’Meara.
The family will receive friends at the Jordon-Fernald, 113 Franklin Street, Ellsworth, on Friday, January 17 from 5 to 7 p.m. A funeral service will be held on Saturday, January 18 at 1 p.m. at the Union Congregational Church, Route 1, Hancock.
In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made in Jean’s memory to the Pierre Monteux School, P. O. Box 457, Hancock, Maine 04640 or The Emmaus Center, P. O. Box 811, Ellsworth, Maine 04605.
Condolences may be expressed at www.jordanfernald.com