Category Archives: Obituaries

Death Announced of Leon Machnik, Founder of Machnik Brothers

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Leon Machnik

Leon Machnik

The death has been announced of Leon Machnik of Old Lyme and Hobe Sound, FL. He died on March 31, 2014, in Middletown.

Son of Polish immigrant parents Jozef and Paula (Makera) Machnik, Leon was born on Grassy Hill Road in Lyme on January 7, 1925. The family moved to what is now known as Mile Creek Farm in Old Lyme, where Leon lived his life and raised his family with his wife Eleanor (Spooner) who died in 2008.

Mr. Machnik attended Colby College and was a veteran of World War II. He was a Second Lieutenant in the Army Air Corps and was a B-24 pilot. He and his brother Tony founded Machnik Bros. Inc. General Contractors, in 1957. Together with his wife, they built Witch Meadow Lake Campsites, a family campground in Salem, CT

Mr. Machnik is survived by his children Judi Hahn and her husband Alan, and Todd Machnik and his wife Becky, all of Old Lyme. His cherished grandchildren Kristen Hahn, Abby Lynn Farmer and her husband Drew, Tom Machnik and his fiancee Kathleen Mathews, Kevin and Peter Machnik. He was predeceased by his siblings Helen Grimes, Mary Connors, Mildred McGowan, Julia Elliott, Tony Machnik and Paula Smith.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be held on Friday April 4th at 11am in Christ The King Church, McCurdy Rd., Old Lyme. Burial with military honors will be in Duck River Cemetery.

To sign the online guest book, visitwww.fultontherouxoldlyme.com.

Death Announced of Jean Washburn Hernandez, Florence Griswold Museum Board Member

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Jean Hernandez

Jean Washburn Hernandez

Jean Washburn Hernandez died peacefully on Saturday, March 1, 2014 at her home in Essex Meadows in Essex, Connecticut. She was 93 years old.

Jean was born on September 20, 1920, in Brooklyn, NY, to Lawrence and Margaret Washburn and was the oldest of three sisters.  Raised in Montreal, Canada and Scarsdale, New York, she was the 4th generation of women in her family to graduate from Packer Collegiate Institute in Brooklyn Heights, NY. After a childhood bout of polio, she attended Mt. Holyoke College where she contracted tuberculosis.  After recuperating in upstate NY and Arizona, she resumed her studies at the University of Arizona.

At the start of WWII Jean enlisted in the American Red Cross and served at an  Army Air Force Base in Arizona, at Camp Edwards in Massachusetts, Otis Field on Cape Cod, and at Washington DC’s St. Elizabeth Hospital.  In all locations she tended the returning wounded, particularly those impacted by psychological trauma.

Before the war she met her future husband, Silvio E. Hernandez in Havana, Cuba while staying with family friends.  She married him in 1946, when he returned from wartime service with the U.S. Army in Europe.  They first resided in New York but shortly after the births of their two children were sent by Westinghouse Electric to Madrid, Spain where they remained for 8 years.  From there they moved to Havana, her husband’s birthplace, a year before the Cuban Revolution.  After being witness to the tumultuous changes brought on by Castro’s policies, they fled in 1960, settling in Essex CT so as to be near Jean’s parents who had retired there.  She remained a resident of Essex for 54 years as an active and contributing member of the community.

Jean was a homemaker and dedicated volunteer.  She was on the Board of the Florence Griswold Museum, in Old Lyme, CT, where as a volunteer, she initiated and ran a successful travel program for the members of the Museum. She was President of the Essex Garden Club, on the Board of the Essex Library Association, and active with St. John’s Episcopal Church in Essex, the Child and Family Agency of SE CT, and many other charitable and community organizations.  Jean and her husband loved to travel and together they enjoyed taking extended trips throughout the world.

Jean was preceded in death by her loving husband of 55 years and more recently by her gentle companion, George (Bud) Lethbridge.  She is survived by her daughter Margaret (Maggie) Hernandez of Key Biscayne, FL, son Robert (Laurie) Hernandez of Essex, CT and their sons Alexander and Christopher.

A memorial service will be held May 2, 2014 at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Essex, CT at 10 a.m.

Memorial donations can be made to the Florence Griswold Museum, 96 Lyme St, Old Lyme, CT, 06371

Death Announced of Lyme’s ‘Doad’ Jewett

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One of Lyme’s oldest and best-loved residents, Doris “Doad” Reynolds Jewett, died on Dec. 10, 2013, in Middletown.  She was born on April 11, 1913, in Lyme, the daughter of Donald and Katherine Reynolds.  Doad taught school in Lyme until her marriage to Charles S. Jewett in 1939.  She lived nearly all her life in the house where she was born on Hamburg Cove. In 1996 she wrote a book for her grandchildren called “Things Remembered” about her adventures growing up there. Click to read her full obituary.