BANGOR – Linda M. McRea, a veteran Maine newspaper reporter, editor and columnist most recently employed by the Bangor Daily News, died Wednesday, Sept. 26, at her home in Bangor after a brief illness. She was 57.

She was born Linda Louise McRea on Oct. 25, 1949, at a birthing house in Vinalhaven, the daughter of Robert H. McRea Sr. and Barbara Webster McRea. She received her elementary education at schools in the St. Louis area, attended high school briefly in Vinalhaven, and later graduated from Georges Valley High School in Thomaston.

McRea studied nursing at the former Central Maine General Hospital in Lewiston and worked as a licensed practical nurse from 1970 to 1978. In January 1970 she married Gerald P. Michaud, and they raised their four children – Corey, Nathan, Sarah and Maggie – at their home in Turner.

McRea began her newspaper career in 1978 as a correspondent for the Lewiston Daily Sun and the Lewiston Evening Journal. She worked as a reporter and regional news editor for the Daily Sun from 1980 to 1983, and in 1984 began writing a popular and award-winning weekly column, “Yankee Cadence,” for the Sunday Sun-Journal.

In reporting on McRea’s first-place award from the Maine Press Association in 1984, the newspaper noted the “sensitive and often poignant vignettes of Maine life” that characterized her columns. Her editor at the time, Thomas Kelsch, later wrote that McRea “has a feel and sensitivity for people and events that comes through in her writing because she combines it with an excellent feel for words.”

McRea also wrote news features for the Sunday paper and in 1987-88 served as its features editor.

In the early 1990s, fulfilling a lifelong dream, she resumed her education at the University of Maine in Orono. She began working part time on the Bangor Daily News copy desk in 1992 to help support herself and her four children as she continued her studies. In 1996 McRea graduated summa cum laude from UM with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and history. She also was elected to the Phi Beta Kappa honor society.

McRea’s life was informed by a love of learning and adventure. In 1994 she and her two daughters spent the spring semester studying Spanish in Guadalajara, Mexico. In 1997-98 she served in the Peace Corps, teaching English at a boarding school in the southwestern African nation of Namibia. She also founded an English club at the school to enhance her students’ knowledge of the language. In addition, she was the editor of a newsletter published six times a year for Peace Corps volunteers in Namibia.

After returning from Africa, McRea lived in Orono and later returned to work as a copy editor at the BDN. In December 1999 she married Timothy J. Allen, who is currently an assignment editor at the paper. They moved to Bangor in late 2003.

McRea had a gift for listening and touched countless people during her life. When news of her illness became known in late August, friends and colleagues responded with an outpouring of appreciation. “You are grace manifested,” wrote a friend in Colorado. “You helped me become a better person, not only a deeper thinker, but a broader thinker, and a more accepting and less judgmental person,” said a longtime friend from Auburn. And a friend from the BDN copy desk wrote, “You truly have been like a gardener cultivating me and helping me grow, and my roots are so much firmer and stronger now because of your caring influence.”

Her contributions helped make the BDN a better paper, according to Managing Editor Mike Dowd.

“Linda touched everyone she worked with at the NEWS with her wisdom, humor and dedication,” said Dowd. “Beyond being an excellent copy editor, she was a strong advocate for journalism dealing with the plight of the oppressed and less fortunate, whether they were from Bangor or Bangladesh. She will be greatly missed.”

Besides her husband, McRea is survived by her mother, Barbara W. McRea of Bangor; her children, Corey P. Michaud of Takoma Park, Md., Nathan W. Michaud of Bangor, Sarah Michaud Charland of Fayette and Maggie Michaud Haines of Bangor; 10 grandchildren, Isabel, Mariah and Josafina Charland of Fayette, Charlotte and McRea Michaud of Bangor, Seth and India Michaud of Takoma Park, and Eleanora, Ezra and Sylvia Haines of Bangor; by two brothers, John W. McRea of Warren and Thomas W. McRea of Vinalhaven; and by several nieces and nephews. She was predeceased by her father, her former husband and by four brothers, Richard McRea, Timothy McRea, Dr. Robert H. McRea Jr. and Daniel McRea.

A funeral service will be held at 2 p.m. Monday, Oct. 1, at All Souls Congregational Church, 10 Broadway, Bangor, with Dr. James L. Haddix, pastor and teacher at All Souls, and the Rev. Joyce Krajian of Narberth, Pa., officiating. Visiting hours will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 30, at Brookings-Smith funeral home, 133 Center St., Bangor. Those wishing to honor McRea’s memory may make a donation to the Vinalhaven Historical Society, P.O. Box 339, 41 High St., Vinalhaven, Maine 04863.