Jacqueline Pert

TOPSHAM – Jacqueline passed on peacefully at the Highlands in Topsham on June 22, 2025, where she had resided since 2013.

She was born in Brunswick as the only child to Madeline (Newell) and Merton Snipe on Oct. 22, 1932.

She attended the John A. Cones School in Topsham and graduated from Morse High School in Bath, where she met her future husband,

Perleston L. “Bub” Pert, Jr. She and Bub were married at the Bath Corliss Street Baptist Church in 1958.

Growing up, she spent summers on Winnegance Bay in Phippsburg with her parents, as well as cruising the coast of Maine on their cabin cruiser, the “Mad Jac”, named for her mum and her.

She loved to sing and had a promising voice. While in high school, at the age of 16, she was invited to study in New York City with famed opera singer, Lilly Pons. As it was thought that she was too young to leave home at the time, that dream/opportunity never materialized, which she looked back on with regret. As a teenager she sang at weddings of family and friends. Her high school yearbook said “sweet as the voice of an angel” and that Jackie had sung her way into the hearts of all her teachers and classmates.

She was a member of the Topsham Grange and the United Baptist Church of Topsham, where she sang in the choir. While living in Winslow she taught Sunday School at Getchell Street Baptist Church in Waterville.

Jackie graduated from the New England Baptist Hospital School of Nursing in Boston, Mass. in 1954, as a registered nurse. While there, she had the opportunity to meet then Senator John F. Kennedy and his wife Jacqueline and care for him twice. After graduation, her nursing career included working in the operating room at the Baptist, for Doctors Westermeyer and Clark in Bath, at St. Andrew’s Hospital in Boothbay, and Thayer Hospital in Waterville, first as a nurse manager on a medical – surgical floor and then in the recovery room.

She was fun loving, had a great sense of humor, and could be the life of the party. Her characteristic laugh usually announced her arrival.

She loved the holidays, especially Thanksgiving and Christmas with family and cooking for them. She was famous for gifting her cheese ball at Christmas.

She also loved to travel. Some of her favorite destinations included Cape Cod and Martha’s Vineyard, Newport, R.I., New York City, Washington, D.C., Florida, Canada, Bermuda, and St. Maarten. She enjoyed annual family vacation camping trips, fall foliage trips to New Hampshire (which would also include some shopping!), and attending the theater, especially musicals. She was an avid reader and especially enjoyed biographies. She also had a true passion for shopping!

Jackie was predeceased by her husband in 2012; and their son, cartoonist Jeffrey Pert in 2014.

She leaves behind her daughter, Judith Pert of Roslindale, Mass., her son, Jonathan and Deb Pert of Falmouth, and her daughter, Jennifer Pert Russo and Morry of Steep Falls.

She is also survived by cousins; several nieces, nephews; great- and great-great-nieces and nephews who she loved dearly!

Jackie’s family will be forever grateful for the love and care she received from all the Highland’s staff over the last 12 years.

On Saturday, Aug. 16, there will be an 11 a.m. graveside funeral service at Oak Grove Cemetery in Bath (Old Brunswick Road entrance), with Reverend Ken Dutille of the Topsham United Baptist Church, officiating. A celebration of Jackie’s life will follow the service, at J. R. Maxwell + Co. restaurant in Bath.

Arrangements by Desmond’s Funeral Home.

To share your thoughts and condolences with the family, please visit wwwdesmondfuneralhomes.com

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the

Highlands Resident

Assistance Fund

30 Governors Way

Topsham, ME. 04086

or to the

Odyssey Writing

Workshops /

Jeff Pert Memorial Fund

P.O. Box 75

Mont Vernon, NH 03057

Jacqueline Pert