Ida Susan “Pinkie” Hosmer Wilfong died on Saturday, July 7, 2012, in Fryeburg, Maine of cancer. Pinkie Wilfong was born at home in South Weymouth, Mass. on Armistice Day, Nov. 11, 1924. She was the eldest daughter of Allen Fearing and Esther Anna Thompson Hosmer. Mrs. Wilfong was a descendant of British settlers and Revolutionary War soldiers who came to North America during the Great Migration [1620-1640]. Her nickname of “Pinkie” was given to her by the midwife who delivered her, because her mother dressed her in pink…the name stuck.

Mrs. Wilfong was raised on a dairy farm and helped her parents to bottle and deliver milk to their neighbors in South Weymouth. She was a 1942 graduate of Weymouth High School, where she was an honors student, the art editor of the yearbook, and a drummer in the marching band. Mrs. Wilfong had a lifelong love of art and attended art college in Boston.

An enduring patriot, Mrs. Wilfong withdrew from college to join in the war effort. She went to work at Bethlehem Steel’s Fore River Shipyard in Quincy, Mass. Mrs. Wilfong worked on many ships, including, the aircraft carriers Wasp and Lexington. She never missed a launch. She often said to her children, “We were all in this fight together, and I needed to do my part.”

In 1942, Pinkie Hosmer met her future husband at a USO dance before he left for the Pacific Theater. When he returned in 1945, she married Marine Corporal Finley Bickford Wilfong, a combat veteran of the 1st Marine Regiment of the 1st Marine Division. They had seven children, with six surviving. Mrs. Wilfong insisted they raise their children on a farm in Maine. In 1957, they bought an old farmhouse in Stow, and soon after they moved to Western Maine. Mrs. Wilfong could not have been happier. It was where she knew she was meant to live. She loved the people, the mountains and the farm community life of the Cold River Valley.

In later years, she worked for the Fryeburg Shoe Shop and for many years as a teacher’s aide for SAD 72 at the Sadie Adams School in North Fryeburg. It was as a Title 1 Aide that she met and mentored a new generation of friends. Mrs. Wilfong was always entrepreneurial. Over the years she owned a gift shop, sold ice to campers in Evan’s Notch, vegetables from a card table on the front lawn and Christmas ornaments that she designed and crafted. She was a wonderful mother, a self-reliant, liberal-minded and decent member of the community and she will be missed.

Mrs. Wilfong leaves behind sons James and wife Valerie, Gary and wife Joan, Scott and wife Eileen, Allen and wife Roberta, Russell and wife Denise; and a daughter Susan Stetson and husband Mark. She also leaves several grandchildren, Amy, Andy and wife Snow, Joshua and wife Deana, Kimberly, Liza, Gregory and wife Michele, Christian, Timothy, Tess and husband Cam, Stephen and Abbe; and great-grandchildren, Wyatt, Garith, Kaitlyn and Piper; a niece Robin Brennan Wiley.

Her parents, her husband, a son Richard, her sister Esther Hosmer Brennan and great-grandchildren Hannah and Rock Star preceded Mrs. Wilfong in death.

There will be a celebration of Mrs. Wilfong’s life on August 18, 2012 at 1:30 p.m. at the home of her son and daughter-in-law, James and Valerie Wilfong, in Stow. It was her wish to have an ice cream social and no “sad faces” because of her passing. In lieu of flowers contributions may be made to Harvest Hills Animal Shelter in Fryeburg, ME 04037, or to the Stow Historical Society, PO Box 38, Fryeburg, ME 04037.

Arrangements are made with Wood Funeral Home, Fryeburg. Online condolences may be expressed to the family at www.woodfuneralhome.org