MILBRIDGE - Ida "Skip" Higgins is resting in eternal peace after succumbing to a long struggle with Alzheimer's. She died April 28, 2010, at Narraguagus Bay Health Care Facility. Skip born Jan. 16, 1921, in Blue Hill, was the 12th of 13 children to the late Herbert W. and Lula (Hardison) Grindle. At the age 7, shortly after her dad died, Skip moved with her mother and baby sister to Ellsworth, only to survive another tragedy, the Ellsworth Fire. At age 16, Skip graduated from Ellsworth High School, where she was a member of the girl's basketball team and enjoyed roller-skating. Soon after graduating Skip landed a job at West Jonesport Post Office. It was in Jonesport that she met and eventually married Hollis Higgins. In 1950, after two of Skip and Hollis' sons were born, the family moved to Brewer, where their third son was born. While raising their family in Brewer, Skip began working for A&P grocery store as a bookkeeper. When A&P closed, Skip worked for Sampson's Super Market, Brewer, where she ran the bakery department for several years. Shortly after the boys graduated from Brewer High School, Skip and Hollis moved back to Jonesport.
Skip accepted the full-time positions of treasurer, tax collector and town clerk for the town of Jonesport, where she served for 20 years, retiring just before her 80th birthday.
Skip was predeceased by all of her 12 brothers and sisters; her parents; and her husband, Hollis K. Higgins.
She is survived by her three sons, Dennis Higgins and his wife, Dorothy Rose, of Jonesport, Douglass Higgins and his wife, Anita, of Orrington and Dana Higgins and his wife, Terri, of Spring River Lake; four grandchildren, Jason Higgins of Jay, Joshua Higgins and his wife, Merianne, of Manchester, Ky., Jennifer King and her husband, Randy, of Bangor and Heather Fidler and her husband, John "JJ," of Bangor; and nine great-grandchildren, Gunnar Higgins, Grace Higgins, Mary Carson Higgins, Luke Higgins, Nathan Higgins, Gabrielle King, Garrett King, Abigail Fidler and Benjamin Fidler.
Graveside services will be at Greenwood Cemetery, Jonesport. (Bangor Daily News 5/1/2010)