Obituary of Jane Ayer Ingalls

Jane Ayer Ingalls, of Freeport and Port Clyde, Maine passed peacefully from this world at the Sussman House in Rockport, Maine on November 23, 2019 after spending the last week of her life at her home in Port Clyde with her children. Born in Lawrence, Massachusetts on November 10, 1924, she was the daughter of Wesley and Carrie Ayer (Shippee) and grew up in Ayers Village, Massachusetts where her father owned a grocery store. She was a graduate of Haverhill High School (1942) and attended Mary Washington College in Virginia and the Kathleen Dell School in Brookline, Massachusetts. Following a career with American Airlines as a flight attendant (1945–49) - where her most memorable passenger was Babe Ruth - she married Edward Allan Ingalls Jr. on April 17, 1949 and devoted the rest of her life to home, family, and community volunteering. Her volunteer work included fostering women and infants through the New Hampshire Children’s Aid and Family Service Agency. She also was a member of the Timberlane Regional High School Board during the planning and construction of that school. She and Edward raised their family in Plaistow, New Hampshire. When they moved to Exeter, New Hampshire in 1983, they divided their time between Exeter and their summer home in Port Clyde, to which they moved permanently in 2003. Jane loved to share Port Clyde with everyone; especially hosting friends and family on her porch looking out to the harbor. Jane was a longtime member of the Port Clyde Baptist Church where she chaired the Missions Committee. She was a voracious reader and a lifelong learner. Her special interests were fine art, music, writing poetry, genealogy, crossword puzzles and she loved her cat. She had a brilliant mind and a passionate soul. Above all, she loved being with her family, especially her grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Her favorite quotation was “The praises of men make me no better; their criticisms make me no worse, what I am in the eyes of God I am that and nothing more.” Thomas a Kempis: The Imitation of Christ. She was predeceased by her husband Edward A. Ingalls, Jr. and her brother Charles William Ayer. She leaves her three children: Weslie Ann Mackenzie and her husband Dr. Malcolm W. Mackenzie of Nelson New Hampshire, Catherine Peabody Ingalls and her spouse, Sabra Burdick of Freeport Maine, and her son Edward A. Ingalls III, of Portland Maine, six beloved grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. She also leaves Kendall Pritchard of Wellesley, Massachusetts who has been like a son to her. Interment will be in the Union Cemetery in Amesbury, Massachusetts. A celebration of her life will be held at her home in Port Clyde in the summer. Memorial contributions may be made to the Port Clyde Baptist Church, 861 Port Clyde Road, Port Clyde, Maine 04855 or to the Jackson Memorial Library c/o the Edward A. Ingalls, Jr. Sailing Scholarship Fund 71 Main Street, Tenants Harbor, Maine 04860.