Newcastle teen remembered with vigil

Tue, 06/12/2018 - 8:45am

A candlelight vigil for Isabelle Manahan, 15, of Newcastle, was held at Great Salt Bay School in Damariscotta around sundown June 11. More than 200 people attended. Many were fellow students at Lincoln Academy in Newcastle, or younger students who knew Manahan when she was a student at GSB for eight years.

She died in a car accident June 8 in Edgecomb. Three other teens were hospitalized.

GSB teachers who knew Manahan  had assembled material from her memory books in which she discussed the things she loved to do, from an early age, such as skiing, dancing, sailing, and playing the fiddle. A trio of a violin teacher and students played her favorite fiddle tune, “The Irish Washerwoman’s Jig.”

Several of her GSB teachers from spoke about their memories of Manahan when she was in their classes. A longtime friend, JoJo Banks, spoke about Manahan’s love of dancing and music, and about the two of them dancing together and singing entire books of musicals.

Heart-shaped balloons and a sea of candles decorated the school common.

Manahan had just completed her freshman year at LA, where her father, Bryan Manahan, heads the English department. She would have spent the summer interning on one of the Windjammers out of Camden, according to her writings that were read aloud.