Following her long and difficult battle against cancer, we are mourning the loss of our beloved friend, sister, wife and mother.
Donna Jean Vineyard died on Friday, March 5th 2021. She was the third child of James Waller Vineyard and Marguerite Mary (Hoeb) Vineyard. She was born on December 19, 1946 in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Donna graduated from Peebles Local High School in 1964, from Ohio University in Athens with a BFA degree in 1968, and from University of South Florida in Tampa with a MS degree in 1978. She began her career as a Speech/Language Pathologist at Tampa Oral School for the Deaf in 1969. She worked for Hillsborough County Schools and Maddux Private School. In 1978, she co-founded Yates Academy on Davis Island. She
co-administered and taught there until moving to Maine in 1988. She was honored to serve the families and children of Washington County through Child Development Services and in private practice until her full retirement in 2016. Her specialty was preschool language delay.
On moving to Lubec, Maine, Donna found the home of her heart. She spent her years in her small home on Boot Cove raising sheep, growing flowers, reading and writing, usually surrounded by cats. She loved the community of Lubec where she was active in singing groups, community theatre, library volunteering, and just enjoying the view of Pope's Folly and watching the seals from the boat ramp. During her early years in Lubec, she spent much of her time on the water on local whale watching boats communing with the whales that frequent these waters. She loved roaming the woods on her land at Baily's Mistake. The woods and the wildlife surrounding her gave her much joy.
The most important and supportive relationship of her life was that with her husband, her loving companion from 1998 until her shuffle off the earth, Osborne Weston Kinney. She and Obbie built a home in an old farm house on Boot Cove, content to live with the wildlife and the wind, listening to all the ships, the groaner, the moose, the deer, the bobcats, the eagles and the songbirds anyone could ever want and accompanied over the years by many cats. It was a charmed and privileged life.
Donna was predeceased by her parents, her sister Amy Kathleen Call, and her 2 year old son, Benjamin Jedediah Yates. She leaves behind her loving companion Osborne Kinney, her children, Dawn Anderson Fabritiis, her son Andrew James Anderson; her siblings, Patricia Ann Hall, Mary Kay Vineyard and Donald James Vineyard. A Celebration of Donna's life will be held at a later date.