EASTPORT – A funeral is planned Sunday for City Councilor Larkin McGarvey, 28, who died last week after a battle with cancer.

City Manager George “Bud” Finch said McGarvey had participated in a range of community activities, from supportive roles at area theater group Stage East to medical response with the ambulance service.

“She has had a long and heroic fight for her health and has been a symbol of courage for many of us that knew her well,” Finch said Monday.

McGarvey died of leukemia Saturday at Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor.

She grew up in Eastport and was elected to the City Council in November 2004.

McGarvey was known as a strong supporter of The Boat School-Husson.

“She grew up around this campus as a frequent visitor with her mom and dad,” said Boat School Administrator John Miller. “Her late father, Bill McGarvey, was an instructor here and a strong lifelong supporter. The unyielding commitment to this school by her mother, Meg, is one of the reasons The Boat School is still here.”

The Boat School at one time was part of Washington County Community College.

“Larkin was a courageous young lady in her battle with leukemia,” Miller said. “That same courage was demonstrated during [Sept. 11, 2001] when she headed to ground zero [in New York] without hesitation to offer medical assistance to those that needed her help. As a neighbor, friend and community leader she will be greatly missed by all of us.”

Finch explained that McGarvey, who was working as a nanny just outside New York City at the time of the Sept. 11 attacks, spent three days in New York after city officials put out a call for all medically trained personnel in the area to go to the scene.

Chairman Brian Schuth said that when McGarvey first ran for council people asked him whether he thought she was too young. “I told them that’s what we need,” he said. “When she was on the council she was always very motivated to see what she could do to help deal with the education situation. Because she was not very removed from having been there herself, it gave her a really unique perspective and a really deep passion that transcended tax issues; it had to do with what was important for the youth of the city.”

Schuth said it was painful to watch McGarvey slowly lose her battle with the disease.

“It was very disturbing to have had to watch us lose someone who could represent what was possible – someone who grew up in Eastport and wanted to remain connected there,” he said.

Even as her illness progressed, Schuth said, she maintained a positive outlook.

“She wanted to be at the council meetings and she wanted to be there because she had something constructive and something upbeat to say about the struggles we were going through. It is so easy for the council meeting to turn into a complaint about, ‘This isn’t working’ and ‘How are we going to get through this?’ and she was always able to focus on solutions or approaches to solutions,” he said.

Councilor Julie Leppin, who knew McGarvey as a child, said the councilor tried to be at every meeting. “Some of the meetings she attended, you could see she was in pain. It was difficult for her, but she made a valiant effort to be wherever she was needed,” Leppin added.

McGarvey is survived by her mother, Meg, and her brother, Joel.

Services will be held at 2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 2, at The Boat School.

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