Patricia Russell

Patricia Farnham Russell, formerly of Millinocket, died peacefully at home on January 22, 2025 after a brief illness. She was 84.

Pat was born April 3, 1940 in Bangor, to Roderick and Margaret Farnham, and spent much of her life in Millinocket, where her father worked for Great Northern Paper. She attended Millinocket schools, and graduated from her parents' alma mater, Colby College in Waterville, in 1962. Shortly after finishing college, she married her sweetheart, Roland "Rollie" L. Russell, whom she met while working in the town's coffee shop. He worked in the paper mill, she taught in local schools, and together they raised three children in Millinocket before moving to Hampden following Pat's retirement from teaching in 1998.

Following Rollie's passing in 2011 from Alzheimer's, Pat was an almost unstoppable force of nature and world traveler who, depending on the season, could be found baking "blasberry" pies at her beloved camp on North Twin Lake, cross-country skiing the Bait Hole, tapping maple trees at the family sap camp in Elliottsville, supporting a medical mission in Ecuador, or cruising the Rhine River in Germany, as she did this past fall before her surprise cancer diagnosis in December.

To her grandchildren, Pat was simply "Mimi," and she racked up tens of thousands of miles in her gray Honda CR-V to celebrate holidays and birthdays and watch her grand kids' endless soccer and field hockey games, chorus concerts and graduations. She was blessed when, later in life, she was introduced to Garret "Gary" Cole, a handsome Bangor widower who played a mean hand of bridge. Pat and Gary tied the knot in 2020 and spent happy years together, bouncing between Hampden, Florida, North Twin and the Cole family camp at Green Lake, before Gary's passing in early 2024.

She is survived by her children, Jeff Russell of Hampden, Andrew Russell and his wife, Carla, of Kennebunk, and Margaret Russell Ewalt and her husband, David, of Winston-Salem, N.C.; brothers, Alden Sprague and his wife, Beverly, of Huntington, N.Y. and R. Ewen Farnham and his wife, Anne, of Scarborough and Castine; sisters, Jane Farnham Rabeni and her husband, Charles, of Columbia, Mo. and Barbara Farnham Briggs and her husband, Robert, of Camden and Carrabassett Valley; grandchildren, Tom Russell of Hampden, Alison Russell and her fiancé, Donald Vivian, of Biddeford, and Meg and Kate Russell of Kennebunk; and many cousins, nieces, nephews and extended family members.

Pat also was predeceased by an infant daughter, Catherine; and her much loved daughter-in-law, Beth Henry Russell.

A Celebration of Life will be held at 1 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 9, 2025 at Brookings Smith 133 Center St. Bangor. The family invites relatives and friends to share conversation and refreshment at the Family Reception Center of Brookings-Smith 163 Center St. Bangor, following the service. Gifts in Pat's memory to the Millinocket Memorial Library at www.millinocketlib.org or by mailing a check to 5 Maine Ave., Millinocket, Maine, 04462.

To view the service remotely, please visit https://my.forever.link/patricia-russell