Janet P. (Farrell) McGovern of Swampscott died peacefully at home on September 29, 2026, within sight of the Massachusetts Bay view she loved. She was 91. Her husband of 68 years, Arthur H. McGovern Jr., died in January.
She and her twin, Joan, were the middle children of the eight born to Laurence P. and Margaret K. (Creevan) Farrell of Lynn; her father set type at a Lynn newspaper and her mother was the chief staff assistant to Congressman William P. Connery. She graduated from St. Mary’s High School, where she cheered and won a prize for Latin translation, married Arthur at 21, moved to his hometown of Swampscott and had four children in five years. She walked from Swampscott to Red Rock nearly every day into her 80s. On the family’s sailboats she was first mate, cook, doctor and uninvited navigator up and down the New England coast; in New Hampshire she fed everyone from a wood stove in the cottage and barn the family built. She worked into her 70s at a job she loved and retired only to care for her twin, as she had cared for each sister in turn and for her daughter Patricia through a long illness.
She leaves her brother, Laurence J. Farrell of Lynn; her sons, Michael McGovern of Swampscott and his partner Julie DeSilva, James McGovern and his wife Dianne of Marblehead, and Stephen McGovern of Arlington, Va.; her grandchildren, Patrick, Sean and Shannon McGovern of Swampscott, Leonard Mullen III of East Boston and Paul Mullen of Danville, N.H.; her son-in-law, Leonard Mullen II; and many nieces and nephews. Her daughter Patricia Mullen and her sisters Evelyn Weber, Dorothy Madigan, Frances “Nancy” Farrell, Joan Poehler, Eileen Keating, Mary Johnson and Sharon Fleury died before her.
Visiting hours are Friday, October 9 from 4 to 7 p.m. at the Solimine Funeral Home, 67 Ocean Street, Lynn. A funeral Mass follows at 10 a.m. at St. John the Evangelist Church, Swampscott. Burial is private. The family suggests donations to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
Compiled from information published by Solimine Funeral Homes. Photograph courtesy of the family via Solimine Funeral Homes. This is our own summary, not the family’s obituary; read the full obituary and leave a condolence at the funeral home’s page on Legacy.com. Corrections: we will fix any error promptly.
