Jane Brown Nesbett

Jane Brown Nesbett passed away peacefully on September 7, 2024, at the age of 92 surrounded by her loving family.

Jane was the daughter of Robert and Violetta Brown. She and her two sisters grew up in Shawnee, Oklahoma, playing with dolls, listening to opera on the family phonograph and occasionally soaring over the vast Oklahoma landscape in her father's silver airplane. To find reprieve from summer's heat, her family would drive to the Rocky Mountains with Jane's horse, Firefly, in tow. It was at Esterbrook Ranch where she developed her love of picnics, babbling streams and the smell of pine trees. Many years later, she was thrilled when her two granddaughters chose to attend the University of Denver and spend many of their weekends in those same mountains.

For secondary school, Jane traveled east to The Masters School ("Dobbs") and subsequently attended Smith College. She then moved to New York City where she worked in publishing. On a weekend trip to Stowe, Vermont, she caught the attention of her future husband, Dan Nesbett, apres ski when he heard her laugh across the room and turned to see a beautiful woman "perched on a bar stool in long, red stretch ski pants encircled by men". He won her heart, and they wed in New York City, started a family, and subsequently moved to Darien, CT.

She was a loving mother devoted to her two boys. During the week, TV was off limits while creative expression was unabashedly encouraged. Nothing made her happier than to hear a child working through a song on the living room piano while she cooked a complex recipe for a routine mid-week family meal. When her boys went off to school, she filled some of her time writing not only beautiful, long letters to friends and family, but also penning vignettes that illuminated the often-undiscussed inner conflict many women of her generation experienced, particularly as they moved through middle age.

After Darien, she and Dan moved to Ivoryton, CT, where Jane rekindled old friendships and even made an appearance on Antiques Roadshow with one of her cherished pieces of heirloom furniture ("They got the price wrong, it is worth twice what they think"). She and Dan then moved to New Canaan to be closer to family. Sadly, Dan passed away in 2014.

The last decade of her time on earth was one filled with unrelenting love and thankfulness. Each time she stepped outside she paused, breathed deeply and looked at the trees and the sky. She then would spread her positivity, despite anything life was throwing at her, to everyone she touched -- her grandchildren, her aides, the cashier at McDonalds (her favorite) or the cheese monger at the local cheese shop (a close second).

As her granddaughter said: "Grandma lived such a full life because she felt so deeply."

She was predeceased by her sister Violetta Dodge and her husband Daniel Nesbett. Jane is survived by her sister Cynthia Yulish (Charles) of Washington, D.C., her two sons John Nesbett (Pamela) of New Canaan, CT, and Peter Nesbett (Shelly Bancroft) of Annapolis, MD, her two granddaughters Alexandra "Tigger" Nesbett of New York City and Isabella "Izzy" Nesbett of Denver, CO, and many beloved nieces, nephews and cousins.

"Life arrived in colored silks, bent the lines, scarves flying ....... Death arrived in the white light, between the lines, then off it raced ...." (by Jane Nesbett, written around 1986 - found in a notebook).

She left the world a better place. We will miss her.