Remembering Annie Hastings

Bethel has lost one of its most familar figures this week with the passing of Annie MacKinnon Hastings, a longtime resident, who died on Nov. 16, 2012.

She was born in Mexico, Maine, in 1920, the daughter of Colin and Lillian Decker MacKinnon, attended local schools and graduated from Mexico High School in 1938. After graduation, she worked as a paper sorter at the Oxford Paper Company in Rumford before enrolling at the Rumford Community Hospital School of Nursing, from which she graduated in 1944. Prior to her marriage to attorney Henry H. Hastings in 1948, she worked as a nurse at the Rumford Community Hospital. She and her husband adopted two children, Cindy and Steve. After her husband died in 1968, she returned to nursing, retiring in 1986. Annie is survived by her two children and two grandchildren.

Very active in the community, she served in the Rumford Hospital Auxiliary, as a Sunday School teacher at the West Parish Congregational Church, a Scout leader, a member of the Bethel Health Council, and Worthy Matron of Purity Chapter of the Order of Eastern Star.

A life member of the Bethel Historical Society since 1977, Annie was long a contributor of food for society events, a “stalwart” of the society’s “Mailing Group,” a “fixture” at the annual St. Never’s Day Sale for years, and a consistently generous financial supporter of the organization.

All who knew her will certainly miss her kindness, humor and keen memories of the past!

Stan Howe

Bethel