Jean Fallon

1925 - 2015

Jean Murray Fallon
1925 - 2015
AUGUSTA - Jean Murray Fallon, of Augusta, a pioneering Maine radio and television broadcaster and a former chair of the Maine Commission for Women, died on Aug. 13, at the Alfond Center for Health in Augusta following a brief illness. She was 89.
Throughout her professional life, Jean used her maiden name of Jean Murray, on the advice of a radio executive who counseled her to do so when she married after her broadcasting career had already begun. He said that "Jean Murray" was a more easily recognizable name than "Jean Fallon." For the remainder of her life, she answered to both.
Although Jean had trained as a nurse during World War II, she began a broadcasting career almost immediately, at a time when almost no other women had broken into the field. She started at WRDO radio in Augusta in 1948, as the host of "Going Places with Jean Murray." Her daily half-hour program featured interviews with local newsmakers and visiting celebrities, including Eleanor Roosevelt.
In 1949, Jean married Richard H. Fallon, Sr., and accompanied him to Bangor, where she continued to host "Going Places with Jean Murray," which moved from WRDO in Augusta to WLBZ in Bangor. After a brief hiatus, Jean returned to WRDO in 1953 and began to do political reporting in addition to hosting her interview program.
Given the prevailing attitudes toward women at the time, executives at WRDO felt they had to request special permission from the governor's office before they could assign Jean to cover governors' news conferences. But she quickly became a respected regular at the State House and paved the way for other women who followed shortly after.
In the 1960s, Jean moved from radio to television, where she appeared as a personality on a daily program aired by WCSH television in Portland, entitled Weekday on Six. Especially at holiday time, her children were frequent guests.
In the mid-1960s, Jean became the State House reporter for WCSH Television and remained in that position until 1977. She was on a first-name basis with every Maine governor and most of the state's prominent political personalities from the 1950s through the 1980s.
Jean served for a time as president of the Maine Press and Radio/TV Women, a statewide professional organization. She was chair of the Maine Commission for Women during the 1970s.
Although a trailblazer with regard to women's issues, Jean devoted even more of her energies to her family. She was the mother of five children: Richard Fallon, Jr. ("Dickie"), Margaret Deborah Fallon Cushman ("Debbie"), Honore Jean Fallon ("Honey"), Mary Candace Fallon ("Candy"), and James Thomas Fallon ("Jimmy").
Raising her children in Augusta, Jean was the president of the parents' associations for Lincoln elementary school, Buker Junior High School, and Cony High School. During the years when she held these positions, she also chaired many fund drives for local charities.
Jean managed to mix her professional life with full-time mothering by mostly working only part-time. She also profited greatly from the assistance of her father, James E. Murray, Sr., who served as a nearly full-time babysitter when one was needed, and from support from other family.
Although born in Lewiston, Jean moved to Augusta as a sixth-grader and graduated from Cony High School in 1943. She attended Colby College for one year but, under financial pressure and with the nation at war, she shifted to nurses' training in the Cadet Nurse Corps at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, Mass. She graduated as a registered nurse in 1947.
Although Jean's passion for communication through the mass media quickly led her from nursing to radio, she never lost her interest in improving public health. In the 1980s, when she was in her 50s, she began taking courses at the University of Maine at Farmington and graduated from there with a degree in Community Health Education in 1985. She put her degree to work by serving briefly as executive director of the Maine Nurses Association.
By the late 1980s, however, Jean turned her attention more exclusively to her expanding family (to whom she was known as "Gena"), including her grandchildren, whom she showered with love and who reciprocated her devotion.
Jean is survived by all of her children and four of their spouses: Jennifer Martin Fallon, Dale L. Cushman, Patricia Laliberte; and Carole Crotty Fallon. Jean is also survived by her eight grandchildren, Joshua and Jared Cushman, Douglas, Katherine, Connor, Shannon, and Thomas Fallon, and Elizabeth Fallon Weintraub; five great-grandchildren; her sister-in-law; and many nieces, nephews; cousins; and countless friends.
In a brief memoir written for her family near the end of her life, Jean said "I really believe I have been blessed with the nicest family in the world." All of her children were with her when she died after a brief illness.
Jean was predeceased by her husband Richard Fallon, Sr.; her brother James E. Murray, Jr.; her father James E. Murray, Sr., and her mother, Mary Maliar Murray.
A gathering of family and friends will be held on Sunday, Aug. 16, from 4-7 p.m. at Plummer Funeral Home, 16 Pleasant St., Augusta. A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated Monday, Aug. 17, at 9 a.m. at St. Mary of the Assumption Catholic Church, Western Ave., Augusta, of which Jean was a communicant. Burial and committal prayers will follow in the family lot in St. Mary's Cemetery, Western Ave., Manchester. Condolences, photos and memories may be shared at www.plummerfh.com

In lieu of flowers, the family
suggests donations to
Old Fort Western
16 Cony St.
Augusta, Maine 04330
www.oldfortwestern.org
or to
Disabled American Veterans
Charitable Organization Trust
www.dav.org