McKernan remembered by family and friends Speakers recall her as civic leader, single mother

BANGOR – Family and friends remembered Barbara Guild McKernan on Saturday as a devoted mother, dedicated Republican and formidable woman unafraid to express her opinions.

McKernan died Wednesday of complications from emphysema. She was 86.

The mother of a former governor, she served on the Bangor City Council from 1977 through 1983.

“She’s the type of person you want to be when you grow up,” Councilor Frank Farrington said after the funeral at All Souls Congregational Church. “She was a giver.

“She could always reasonably test where she was coming from as well as where others were coming from,” he said. “There’s no question she was a force, but she just made people better than they thought they could be.”

McKernan also was a dedicated Republican. As a newlywed during World War II, she worked at the Republican National Committee offices in Washington, D.C. Later, she was active in state and local party politics.

Sen. Susan Collins said after the service that Barbara McKernan was one of the people from whom she sought advice when she decided to run for governor in 1994 after McKernan’s son, John R. “Jock” McKernan Jr., completed two terms as governor of Maine.

Collins won the Republican primary but lost that race to independent Angus King. Two years later, Collins won a U.S. Senate seat.

“She was a trailblazer for the women that came after her,” Collins said.

Collins and Sen. Olympia Snowe attended the service. Snowe is married to John McKernan, the former governor.

Barbara McKernan’s two sons recalled a woman who worked hard to make sure that their father’s death when they were teenagers changed their lives as little as possible. John R. McKernan died in 1964.

“Forty-three years ago this month, she became a single mom before the term was even used,” said son Robert T. McKernan, 54, of Alexandria, Va. “It was not easy for her.”

It was his mother’s talent, determination, sheer willpower and the help of many friends, he said, that allowed her to take over her late husband’s business, the Penobscot Times weekly newspaper in Old Town.

After a full day at work, Robert McKernan said, his mother returned home to cook dinner for her sons and help them with homework. She also attended all their sporting events.

“She came to every game,” he said, “and suffered through the 1967-68 [Bangor High School basketball] season when we were winless for 20 games.”

Barbara McKernan moved to a retirement community in Scarborough 31/2 years ago, said John McKernan, 58. Already suffering from emphysema, she was losing her sight and her hearing, but not her sense of humor.

“Our phone calls always began the same way,” he said. “I’d ask, ‘How’re you doing, Mom?’ And she always replied the same: ‘Not bad for someone who can’t see, hear or breathe.'”

Barbara McKernan never admitted that she liked it in southern Maine, he said.

“I overheard her tell her doctor one day, ‘I was doing just fine until they moved me to southern Maine,'” John McKernan said. “She may have been a resident of Scarborough, but she lived in Bangor. This would always be home.”

Barbara McKernan also was never afraid to express her opinion.

“I’m sure that after only a few days in heaven, God knows where she stands on everything,” he said.

The former governor described his mother as tenacious, rock steady and resilient – like the coast of the state she loved.