Sylvia Lownes Turkington

Nov. 26, 1934 – June 8, 2018

Sylvia Lownes Turkington, 83, of Coupeville, Washington died on June 8, 2018 at her daughter’s home on Camano Island, Washington.

Sylvia was born in Providence, Rhode Island.

Sylvia was surrounded and cared for by her loving children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren for the last few months. Most traveled from Alaska where Sylvia moved in 1969 from Connecticut to raise her family.

In life, Sylvia was a lover of history, nature, animals and her community. She often volunteered her time and talents to the communities she lived in from manning the polls in Alaska to the Coupeville Garden Club and Historical Society. Sylvia’s passions were gardening and the arts, and she prided herself on always learning.

Sylvia didn’t just “try” a new art — she mastered it, whether it was cake decorating, carving soap, painting an oil portrait or a water color landscape, crocheting an afghan, sewing matching outfits for Christmas, embroidering, cross-stitching, making beautiful quilts by hand — every stitch so perfect that many thought it had been done by a machine — or knitting a beautiful original pattern sweater. She loved to pass on her love of the arts and often taught classes at the local colleges, yarn or fabric shop, or in her home studio. She was a master knitter and had many published patterns.

As always, she used her talents to help others and spent many hours knitting baby blankets for the neonatal hospital and warm hats and mittens for many charities around the country.

Sylvia taught us that as long as what you say and do comes from a place of love and compassion, you can’t go wrong. She was a loyal friend and her independence was fierce, her grace embracing, her acceptance total. She spoke her truth lovingly and left her legacy for future generations.

Sylvia was preceded in death by her father, Albert E. Lownes; mother, Barbara S. Lownes; and sisters Ann Hamilton and Carol Homer.

Sylvia is survived by her brother, Richard “Dick” Lownes (wife Valerie Lownes) of Maine; and her six children, Bradford James Turkington, Therese Turkington, Linda T. Jones (husband Troy A. Jones), Kevin Michael Turkington (wife Angela Turkington), Jeffrey Alden Turkington (wife Heather W. Turkington) and Leslie T. Whaley (husband William J. Whaley). She is also survived by her many grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and loved being “GG” to her great-grandchildren.