EASTPORT – There was a sense of loss here Monday as word spread that one of the city’s brightest and youngest leaders died over the weekend.

City Councilor Larkin McGarvey, 28, died Saturday at Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor after a long battle with leukemia.

“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,” City Manager George “Bud” Finch said Monday.

Finch said McGarvey had been a rising star in Eastport’s leadership.

“Before illness struck she participated in a wide variety of community activities, from supportive roles at Stage East [the local theater group] to medical response with the ambulance service, always putting service above self,” he said.

McGarvey, who grew up in Eastport, was elected to the City Council in November 2004.

In 2005, she and Councilor Kathryn Lewis won re-election hands down to their respective seats on the council. They ran unopposed and ended with each getting 367 votes.

McGarvey also was a supporter of The Boat School-Husson.

“Larkin McGarvey was a true friend of The Boat School … as a member of the Eastport City Council and as a citizen of this island,” Boat School Administrator John Miller said Monday. “She grew up around this campus as a frequent visitor with her mom and dad. Both of Larkin’s parents have been part of the Boat School family for over 30 years. 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 9-11 when she headed to ground zero [in New York City] 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, 2001, attacks, spent three days in New York after city officials put out a call for all local medically trained personnel in the area to go to the scene.

Larkin later returned to Eastport.

Fellow city councilors mourned her death Monday.

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 young 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.

She said McGarvey also served on several committees. “We have such a hard time getting anybody involved in a committee, let alone a young person. It was really a treat to have somebody be that committed and dedicated and wanting to serve and wanting to help,” she said.

Leppin described McGarvey as upbeat. “Larkin was very positive, and throughout this illness you could see that. She had such a great spirit about her that way,” she said. “No mother should outlive their child, and my heart goes out to Meg. It is just very, very sad.”

Councilor Lewis said that, had McGarvey survived, she would have grown and contributed even more to the community.

In 2005, a Bangor Daily News story described McGarvey’s participation in the American Cancer Society’s “Look Good … Feel Better” program which began in 1989 to help women cancer patients improve their self-esteem and deal with the side effects of treatment.

“When radiation treatments are making your hair, eyelashes and eyebrows fall out, and you are vomiting five times a day, the last thing you care about is the right shade of lipstick,” the story said. “That’s how Larkin McGarvey of Eastport felt when she sat down at a folding table stacked with jars of moisturizer, bottles of foundation, twist-up tubes of lipstick and shiny lip-liner pencils to learn makeup and skin care tips through the American Cancer Society.”

McGarvey was being treated for acute lymphoblastic leukemia. The article reported that she had undergone full-body radiation and a subsequent stem cell transplant.

“It isn’t just about makeup,” she said of the ACS program at the time.

It was about doing the things she used to do before her whole life started to change, the article added.

“It’s a long climb uphill,” she said.

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

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

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