JANE MCINTOSH SHELDON

Sheldon, Jane McIntosh
Age 96, died peacefully in her sleep at her home in Dover, on November 18. Born in Kenilworth, IL in 1916, she graduated from The Roycemore School and Northwestern University before marrying John Ellsworth Sheldon in 1941, and moving to Milton, MA. She was a WWII Red Cross volunteer and a board member of the Elizabeth Peabody Settlement House of Boston, a volunteer at the Museum of Fine Arts and Children's Museum, a member of the Women's Republican Club, the Mass Audubon Society, the Milton Garden Club, and a founding member of the Ponkapoag Pony Club. With a passion for horses from her earliest days in the Midwest, she rode and fox hunted her entire life. She and John moved to Dover in 1962, where she became an active and lifelong member of the Norfolk Hunt Club, serving as a member of its Executive Committee, President during the 1970s, and as joint Master from 1981-1985 and again from 1987-1995. The Jane M. Sheldon Perpetual Challenge Trophy is awarded annually to the leading senior woman rider at the New England Hunter Trials. For most people who knew Jane, she was that rare combination of elegance and grit; a true lady, who was never one to go around a jump when she could go over.
Jane is survived by her four children: Jane of Rockport, Maine; Mary of The Plains, Virginia; Cynthia of Little Compton, Rhode Island; John of Milton, Massachusetts; and her niece and god daughter Mary Madden of Taos, New Mexico; and her nine grandchildren, to whom she was known affectionately as "Bamba". A memorial service is planned in early May. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in her memory to the Dover Land Conservation Trust (DLCT), PO Box 562, Dover, MA 02030.