Obituary

Jean Hammond Mayhew Carter

Tue, 11/13/2012 - 12:30pm

Jean Hammond Mayhew Carter, a highly respected and loved woman, died November 10 in Delaware at her daughter Ruth Mayhew Evan’s house, with three of her daughters by her side.  She will be greatly missed.

Born May 30, 1925, Jean was delivered by her grandfather, Dr. Benjamin Keller, in Thomaston. Her parents were Carlton Howard Hammond and Marie Keller Hammond.  Jean grew up in South Portland, the second of five siblings.

Jean married Stanley Joseph (Joe) Mayhew Jr. They lived for a few years in Brunswick, and then moved to Falmouth where she raised their eight children (Linda, Kathleen, Laura, Louise, Michael, Brian, Joanne and Ruth).

In addition to being a homemaker, Jean was very active in her children’s educations and town politics. She was a Girl Scout and Cub Scout leader, a member of the school board for three terms (nine years) and was the school board chairperson for much of that time. She won election to the town council as an independent candidate, with more votes than both of her challenging Democratic and Republican candidates put together. She was reelected to the council and retired from it after having served as the chairperson for several years.  

She made sure that all of her children received college educations, and encouraged them to pursue post graduate degrees.

Jean’s husband, Joe, died while their youngest daughter (Ruth) was a sophomore in college. After Ruth graduated and was working at SAPPI, she introduced her mother with a very nice widower/chemist with whom she worked. Jean married Thomas Carter and became involved with his three children. Jean set up college fund accounts to assist all of her grandchildren.

Tom and Jean, in their retirement, had the opportunity to travel the world, and they embraced it. They traveled to Russia a couple times, walked the Great Wall in China and hiked the rain forests in South America.  

She will be greatly missed by her children, 27 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren, with many more on the way. She will be remembered as being a very intelligent, motivated woman who spent her life working hard to make life better for her family and for those in the communities in which she lived.

Jean was the mother of Michael Mayhew, mother-in-law of Trudy, and grandmother of Brett, Brian, Brittany and Samuel Mayhew of Boothbay Harbor. There will be a memorial service in the Portland area for her in December.