Jean Hawkes, 101

Jean (Marsh Eldridge)  Hawkes of Marblehead and Falmouth, died peacefully on Wednesday, May 31,2023, at the age of 101.  Born in July 1921 to Melmouth and Winifred (Woods) Marsh in St. John, New Brunswick. 

The family moved to Saugus, MA in the late 1920s, where Jean grew up and later attended Salem Hospital School of Nursing, graduating in 1942 as a Registered Nurse.  After marrying, and while raising her family in Marblehead, Jean worked for many years as a nurse at the Mary A. Alley Hospital, at Salem Hospital, and in later years, at the Louise Caroline Nursing Home in Saugus, MA. She was a skilled and devoted nurse and administrator.

In their retirement years, Jean and Ed traveled in the United States, Europe, and Central America, making friends wherever they went. They spent their final years in Falmouth on Cape Cod, near the ocean they both loved. 

She was the beloved wife of the late Edward F. Hawkes, with whom she shared 34 years of marriage. From her first marriage to Kenneth Eldridge, she was the loving mother of six children, Marsha Eldridge and her husband Bruce Merrill of Oak Bluffs, Kenneth M. Eldridge and his wife Carol of Marblehead, Peggy Stockman and her husband,Alex Bloom of Boston, Louise Eldridge and her husband Paul Charland of Brookline, NH, Lorraine Eldridge and her partner Tim Tsai of W. Tisbury, and Barbara Eldridge of E. Falmouth. She was also the dear stepmother of Ted Hawkes of Gloucester, George Bell of Dorchester, and Dorset MacRae of Farmington, NH.  She was the much-loved “Gran” to many grandchildren and great grandchildren.

Burial will be private. A celebration of her life and memory will be planned for later in the summer. 

In lieu of flowers, contributions can be made in her memory to Hebrew SeniorLife, Development Department, 1200 Centre Street, Boston, MA 02131 or via hebrewseniorlife.org/TributeGift, or to Heritage at Falmouth, 140 Ter Heun Drive, Falmouth, MA 02540.