Jean M. Hubbard

CANAAN – Jean M. Hubbard came into this world on Jan. 26, 1941 – Dec. 15, 2024, born to Edward and Clara (Curtis) Mills of Fryeburg. She grew up and attended the Fryeburg schools graduating from Fryeburg Academy in 1959. She then attended Farmington State Teachers College, where she met her future husband and love of her life, Phillip. They were married in her senior year on Dec. 26, 1962.

After graduating in June of 1963, Jean moved to Biloxi, Mississippi to join her husband and became an Air Force wife. While in Biloxi, Jean taught at Sacred Heart High School. Shortly thereafter, she moved with her husband to March AFB, California, where she personally met many notable people (such as Chuck Yeager, the famous test pilot) and where her first child, Garret, was born. She then moved to Vance AFB in Enid, Oklahoma, while her husband attended USAF Pilot Training. Once completed, they moved again to Loring AFB in Limestone, where she lived for the next few years. During this time, their second child Pamela arrived, and two weeks later Jean’s husband went to Southeast Asia for 15 months. Jean managed her family during this absence like a true Air Force wife.

Upon her husband’s return, she was asked to dust off her master planning and packing skills to move her family to Pease AFB in Portsmouth, N.H. While there, Jean continued her ventures by earning her private pilot’s license, which became essential with their move to Elmendorf AFB, Alaska. If you wanted to see all that Alaska had to offer, you needed to own your own airplane and fly to see the wonders of the state. It was an adventurous life for the next six years, flying to remote villages, fishing, hunting, and a most notable trip to Anaktuvuk Pass, a little village approximately one hundred miles north of the Arctic Circle. There, she met and visited with a living native eskimo legend, Elijah Kakinya.

During her time in Alaska, she became involved with early childhood development, which she dearly loved and later became the director of the preschool at Elmendorf. Approximately 300 little ones cycled through her school on a weekly basis. Upon leaving Alaska, she moved to Lebanon, Illinois, close to Scott AFB. She substituted in the local schools on a regular basis from PE to History. From there, she moved to Wright Patterson AFB and became quickly involved in the base functions. Alas, the stay was short in Ohio and just shy of a year, she moved to Tinker AFB in Oklahoma. Once there, Jean became the first lady of the base, advising the NCO Wives Club and welcoming dignitaries’ wives to the base.

In 1988, Jean made her final move with her husband back to Maine to a somewhat quiet lifestyle but even that soon ended. She learned to fly the family airplane on floats, worked in the woods alongside her husband hauling out logs, running a Woodmizer sawmill, and helping frame and finish their “forever home”. In her spare time, she joined the Order of the Eastern Star, where she became the Worthy Matron and eventually Grand Esther during the 2004-2005 Grand Chapter year.

Jean was a talented seamstress making many of her own clothes, knitting socks, scarves, hats, and baby blankets for her children, grandchildren, and extended family, as well as quilting, hooking and braiding rugs. Her accomplishments were many. Jean was also a skilled marksman both in civilian and military weapons, including the M-60 machine gun. Jean loved her family fiercely and taught her children and grandchildren how to be courageous, laugh, and love life to the fullest. Jean was the ultimate wife, mother, and grandmother. Then, we lost her, the light of our lives, on December 15th, 2024.

Jean is survived by her husband, Phillip, her son Garret, his wife Ann, and their two children Bryce and Chase; her daughter Pamela Smith and her husband Theros and their two daughters Olivia and Sophia; her sister Violet Eastman (her last surviving sibling), as well as many nieces and nephews. There will be a visitation on Jan. 3, 2025, from 4-6 p.m., at Crosby & Neal Funeral Home at 117 Main Street, Newport. A private family burial will be done at a later time. For those who wish to leave written condolences, may do so at crosbyneal.com.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, 22512 Gateway Center Drive, Clarksburg, MD 20871.