Island loses Cynthia Young
Her fine, shiny white hair and sweet countenance were a familiar and welcome sight to the many island residents whose lives she touched in the 61 years Cynthia Young was a part of the Nantucket community.

Mrs. Young, who would have turned 83 on April 2, died unexpectedly at Nantucket Cottage Hospital during the early morning of Tuesday, March 11 after a brief illness. Although her children reunited on the island today, the only plan they were sure of late Tuesday afternoon was that her service will be held at 11 a.m. on Friday, March 14 at the Unitarian Church.

Mrs. Young was born on April 2, 1925. She first came to Nantucket on a grey day in May of 1946 to visit a friend who was working at Nantucket Cottage Hospital. Mrs. Young, who was from Rye, N.Y., had been employed in a New York City restaurant but did not care for the urban atmosphere. When she arrived on the island she found there were jobs available at the hospital and was hired as what she called "a ward girl" in an interview recorded with Donna Fee on Nov. 3, 2000.

She had not been here long before she and her late husband Roger Young first laid eyes on each other in Nantucket Pharmacy, then known as Mac's. She told Fee that because of the way each was dressed she thought he was in the Coast Guard and he thought she was a nurse. Their true identities became clear after a friend introduced them and she took driving lessons from Young in one of his family's bike shop vehicles, a Model Atruck.

The couple's relationship deepened over the summer. Though Mrs. Young's job ended after the season and she returned to Rye, before she left the two decided to marry the next year. After their wedding they settled into their first island home - a cold-water flat at 33 Mill St. - with Grace Brown Gardner as their landlady. In February of 1948, Mrs. Young gave birth to their first child, Jessica, whose birth was followed by Robert in 1950 with four more little Youngs to come.

Among her earliest community involvements was membership in Eastern Star, the women's arm of The Masons. Mrs. Young performed in a few skits the group presented at Bennett Hall and in the Cyrus Peirce School gym. She told Fee they were called "blackouts" because none of the skits was related in subject.

Mrs. Young was predeceased by her husband Roger and daughter Jessica, and a sister, Marguerite McDanel. She is survived by her children Robert, Harvey and Lucinda Young of Nantucket, Steven Young of Amherst and Stephanie (Young) Kaydus of Yacolt, Wa.; by a sister, Corinna Brown of Preston, Conn.; and eight grndchildren.

- Mary Lanacaster