Jean Carlile Ayers

Jean Carlile Ayers (ne Eleanor Jean Carlile) was born July 22, 1916, in Morestown, N.J., the daughter of John Snyder Carlile and Marion Gray Warner. Jean died June 6, 2006, at Merriman House in North Conway after a long illness. During high school she attended Packer Collegiate Institute of Brooklyn, and received an undergraduate degree in psychology at Wells College and a graduate business degree from Columbia University. In the early 1940s, she worked as a fashion copywriter in New York City. In 1942, she married Benjamin Kimball Ayers Jr. of Concord. After the war, she worked as a secretary drafting the Dartmouth Bible while Kim completed his graduate studies in Hanover. As her husband pursued his career as a civil engineer in Texas, the Middle East and North Africa, Jean relished the role of mother and homemaker. Moreover, she continued her lifelong writing of articles, poetry and the chronicles of the family dog, "Touring the World with Butterscotch." In the late 1960s, Jean worked as an assistant librarian at University of New Hampshire, Durham, and then five years at Holderness School as a dorm parent while Kim taught. After retirement and making Moultonborough, their longtime summer retreat, into a year-round home in 1975, Jean was able to more enjoy her family, fun, swimming, boating and the world of words. She considered public libraries a vital community resource and served several years as trustee of Moultonborough Public Library.Her husband, Kim, and an infant son, Benjamin Kimball Ayers III, predeceased Jean. She is survived by her three children, Bonnie Ayers D'Orlando of Nahant, Mass., Deborah Ayers of Madison, and Alan Douglas Ayers of Westlake, Ohio, and four grandchildren in Ohio, Lisa Ann Ayers, Brian Douglas Ayers, Sara Elizabeth Ayers and Rebecca Kimberly Ayers. Services will be held at 11 a.m. on July 22 at North Sandwich Meetinghouse, 354 Quaker Whiteface Road, North Sandwich. In lieu of flowers, donations in her memory may be sent to either the Moultonborough Public Library, P.O. Box 150, Moultonborough, NH 03254, or the North Sandwich Meeting of the Society of Friends, c/o Clerk, 521 Washington Hill Road, P.O. Box 106, Chocorua, NH 03817-0106.