Obituary of Enid Phoebe Farmer

Enid Phoebe Pennant Farmer, 88, a 30-year Maine resident who started life in England, survived the wartime bombardment of London, became a noted journalist and author, took American citizenship, and made marks in New York City politics and urban planning, died Jan. 20 at her beloved cottage in Trevett following a short illness. Enid Colfer was born Nov. 26, 1923 in Southampton, England to Thomas Francis Colfer and Phoebe Jane Colfer (nee Pennant). She was the third of four Colfer children. In 1935 she entered St. Swithun's School in Winchester, Hampshire, but her schooling was abbreviated by WWII. She instead aided the war effort in London as an assistant in England's Ministry of Information. Enid forged a postwar career in Fleet Street newspapering as a picture editor for the London Daily Express, attaining unusual distinction for a woman of the era. She became engaged to Life magazine's London bureau chief, Lyman Gene Farmer, and they married in New York in October 1958, taking up residence there. In 1961 Enid published (as Enid Colfer) "Cucumber: the Story of a Siamese Cat," her memoir of feline ownership in London, which dangled the question of who exactly had owned whom. Enid became a naturalized American citizen in 1964. As a New Yorker she volunteered in Democratic politics as a ward heeler in Mayor John V. Lindsay's winning 1965 and 1969 campaigns. She led a citizen's lobby to renovate vacant land on Staten Island as the Lt. Nick Lia Memorial Park, honoring a local Vietnam war hero. With her husband she contributed to Life's Apollo space mission coverage, memorably shadowing astronaut Buzz Aldrin's wife Joan as Apollo 11 unfolded. She gave birth to her three sons in 1960, 1963, and 1966. In 1971 the Farmers moved to Lexington, Mass. where Gene Farmer died suddenly in June 1972. Enid never remarried but returned to work as a researcher-editor for Time-Life Books and was very active in Lexington's Episcopal Church of Our Redeemer. She resettled in Trevett in 1982 and rarely left Maine thereafter. Enid christened her idyllic waterside home Tir-Nan-Og (Gaelic for "land of the young") and it became known for its valiantly cultivated English garden, gracious parties, and exuberant Newfoundland retrievers. Enid was an original and committed parishioner of St. Columba's Episcopal Church in Boothbay Harbor, instrumental in building the first new church on the Boothbay peninsula in more than a generation. She served on the board of the Lincoln County Animal Shelter and volunteered for the Boothbay Harbor Memorial Library and New Hope for Women, an organization working against domestic violence in coastal Maine. Enid was predeceased by her third and youngest son, U.S. Navy Lt. Tristram Evan Farmer, who died in 1992 in a naval aviation accident. She is survived by sons, Thomas Ian Farmer of Edmonds, Wash., and Terence Scott Farmer of Boothbay Harbor; grandchildren, Megan, Timothy and Brendan; and younger brother, William Colfer of Dorset, England. Celebration of Enid's life 10 a.m., Wed., Feb. 1 at St. Columba's, 34 Emery Lane, Boothbay Harbor. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that Enid be remembered via a contribution in her name to St. Columba's, which will help support church operations and outreach programs in the Christian tradition.