Kidney Sources
DOROTHY M. (Boone) KIDNEY
Washburn and Belleaire Bluffs, FLA - Dorothy B. Kidney, 82, Maine author, died June 10, 2001, at a Presque Isle health care facility. She was born Feb. 4, 1919 in Presque Isle, the daughter of Frank and Bertha (Libby) Boone.
She battled spinal cancer since being diagnosed last summer She graduated from Presque Isle High School as valedictorian of her class. Her career as an author was launched in 1969 with the publication of "Away from it All" a book telling of her life in a small cabin deep in the Maine woods with her husband, a park ranger on the Allagash Wilderness Waterway. The success of this book led to the publication of two more on the same theme "Wilderness Journal" and "A Home in the Wilderness." She wrote of life in a small Maine town in her novel "Protrait of Debec." She wrote a successful series of children's books using her experience as a teacher in Maine public school. A deeply religious person, she wrote for the denominational publications of the Nazarene Church, of which she was a long-time member, as well as for other religious magazines. She wrote many articles for various magazines on the subject of growing up in a small town during the Great Depression. She also had many poems published. In middle-age she fulfilled a long-time dream by returning to school at Gorham State Teachers College, where she again was valedictorian of her class. She taught school at Yarmouth, Gray, and Washburn after graduating from college. For most of her adult life, she suffered from multiple sclerosis, which gradually robbed her of the ability to walk. It was for this reason that she and her husband had to give up their summers on the Allagash Wilderness Waterway, after spending 25 years there. In the last years of her life, they lived in Bellearie Bluffs, FLA in the winter and in their home in Washburn during the summer. She comtimued to write almost to the time of her death, and when she was diagnosed with cancer, she had just submitted a mystery novel to her publishers.
She is survived by a sister, Mrs Kathleen Grant of Presque Isle and New Smyrna Beach, Fla., a brother, Ralph Delano of Benson N.C.; a stepson, Jeff Ashton of Federal Way, Wash.; and an adopted son, Arthur Logue. She was predeceased by her husband, Milford L. Kidney on June 6, 2000.
Friends may call 7-9 PM Thursday at Duncan-Graves Funeral Home, 300 Church St., Presque Isle. Funeral services will be held 1 PM Friday at the funeral home, with the Rev. Larry Palmer officiating. Interment will be in Riverside Ext. Cemetery, Washburn.