Jean H. Stanton

Jean H. Stanton, 89, of Jaffrey died February 13, 2013, with family by her side, at the Monadnock Community Hospital in Peterborough following a brief illness. She was born November 17, 1923 in Waltham MA, daughter of the late Charles E. and Alberta (Sweet) Harvey. Jean was a graduate of Belmont (MA) High School and Katherine Gibbs School in Boston. She was employed as a secretary for many years with the American Baptist Convention in Boston, and later at MIT Sloan School of Management in Cambridge. Upon moving to Jaffrey she worked for the Monadnock Ledger, from where she retired. Mrs. Stanton was an active member of the First Church in Jaffrey; Jaffrey Women’s Club; The Monadnock Country Club in Peterborough; and was a member and officer of CLAPA (Contoocook Lake Area Preservation Association). She enjoyed homemaking, flying, golf, gardening, horseback riding and most importantly her two daughters, two grandsons and three great grandsons. Jean was active and independent until just a few days before her death. She was looking forward to soon renewing her driver’s license for another five years! Jean met her husband, Arthur Stanton, while car pooling to the Norwood Airport, in the early 1940’s, where they both worked. They were married in 1944, and with WWII still in progress, they traveled to where he was stationed at Chanute Air Base in Illinois and then to Louisiana as part of his military commitment. In 1946 they settled in Belmont MA, and summered in her family’s long time Jaffrey summer cottage on Lake Contoocook. Upon her husband Arthur’s retirement from MIT’s Charles Stark Draper Laboratory in 1977 they remodeled the old summer place and become year round Jaffrey residents, where she cherished her many friends and Church family. She was predeceased by her husband of fifty-five years, Arthur C. Stanton, in 1998, and by her daughter Lynn Stanton in 2004; also by her sister Margaret (Peggy) Pelletier in 1997. Survivors include her daughter Lee S. Sawyer and her husband Harvey of Jaffrey; her two grandsons Tyson D. Sawyer, his wife Emilie, and great grandson Isaac of Mason; and Kent S. Sawyer, his wife Heather, and great grandsons Jacob and Benjamin of Jaffrey; her sister Charlene Hoar and her husband General Joseph P. Hoar, USMC Ret. of Del Mar CA.; and several nieces and nephews.

In lieu of flowers, friends may make a memorial contribution to the Jaffrey Gilmore Foundation (Jaffrey Civic Center), 40 Main Street, Jaffrey NH 03452.

A Memorial Service will be held March 23, 2013 at 2 PM at the First Church in Jaffrey, 14 Laban Ainsworth Way, Jaffrey (Center) NH. Rev. Robert Kyte, pastor, will officiate. A reception will follow.