Obituary of Georgia Randall

Georgia Farnham Emery Randall, 103, died peacefully at her home at the Deborah Lincoln House Friday, March 3, 2017, following a brief illness. Born May 21, 1913, in Sidney, she was the daughter of Horace and Sarah (Baker) Farnham, and the third of five siblings. A graduate of Crosby High School in Belfast, she studied nursing and graduated from the Waldo County General Hospital School of Nursing in 1934. She worked locally as a nurse until enlisting in the Army Nurse Corps in April of 1942, rising to the rank of second lieutenant, and serving as a nurse anesthetist in Australia and New Guinea during World War II. She married her first husband, Albert O. Emery, of Rockland, in November 1947. They raised a son, David F. Emery. Georgia worked as a nurse at the Knox County General Hospital, and later as the night supervisor at the Camden Community Hospital until her retirement in the mid-1980s. Albert passed away in October 1970, and several years later, Georgia married Coleman Randall of Belfast, her high school sweetheart. She was an active member of the community in both Rockland and Belfast, having been a member of the Rockland Congregational Church and later, the First Church in Belfast. She served as a Cub Scout den mother, made costumes for the annual Congregational Church Christmas Pageant, volunteered with the Red Cross and Civil Defense, and was, at various times, an active member of the Order of the Eastern Star, the Daughters of the American Revolution, and the Mayflower Society, tracing her ancestry back to John and Priscilla Alden. A skilled seamstress, she oversaw the restoration of a commemorative banner originally presented to the second battleship Maine at her commissioning in 1902, now displayed in the ward room of the nuclear ballistic submarine Maine (SSBN-741). Her sense of community never diminished with age; while in her late '90s, she knitted and donated more than 50 pairs of mittens per year to the Belfast Rotary Club for distribution to needy children, for which she was honored as a Paul Harris Fellow. She is survived by her son, former U.S. Rep. David F. Emery, and his wife, Judge Carol R. Emery, of Tenants Harbor; a grandson, Dr. Albert F. Emery, of Ann Arbor, Mich.; nieces and nephews Sarah Smart of Hermon, Margaret Farnham of Long Beach, Calif., Arthur Farnham of Dover, N.H., Peter Farnham and his wife, Barbara, of Lexington, Va., Andrew Farnham and his wife, Debora, of Hermon, Stuart Farnham Jr. and his wife, Raeleene, of Camden, Clement Farnham and his wife, Nancy, of Holden, Mass., and Claudia Ramirez of Lumberton, N.J. She is also survived by a stepdaughter, Judith Whitney, of Belfast; and two step-grandchildren, Kenneth Whitney of Belfast and Dr. Ellen Whitney of Brattleboro, Vt. The family will hold a private service this spring in her honor. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that friends honor her memory with a donation to the Waldo County General Hospital in Belfast, as she had requested.