Jeanne Cowan Whetstone Walker

JEANNE COWAN (WHETSTONE) WALKER, 84

WRITER, ARTIST, ADVOCATE, DEVOTED WIFE AND MOM

Jeanne Walker, age 84, passed away on May 8, 2025, at Covenant Living Hospice Care in Keene, New Hampshire, shortly after suffering a stroke in March. Her final weeks were peaceful -- and even joyful. Surrounded by family, she sang along to a few of her favorite Carly Simon songs from her hospital bed on the day she died.

A fiercely compassionate, adaptive, and endlessly creative soul, Jeanne lived her life in the service of others. She was born in Denver, Colorado, on January 23, 1941, the youngest of two daughters of Dorothy Julia (Jewel) Keating and Lester Augustus Cowan. When she was eight, her family moved to Westport, Connecticut for her mother's cancer treatment, though Jeanne wasn't told of her illness until shortly before her mom died on Christmas Eve. This sudden loss left a deep imprint -- one that would shape Jeanne's life. Having never had the chance to care for her own mother, she would spend her adulthood caring for others -- with extraordinary tenderness, humor, and resolve.

Jeanne attended Gettysburg College but left before graduating when she married a fellow student, John Stephen Whetstone (Steve), and gave birth to their son, Stephen, in August 1962. The family eventually settled in Guilford, Connecticut, where Steve began his ministry at the Congregational Church. Their daughter, Krista, arrived in 1963. When the marriage unraveled in the late '60s, Jeanne -- still in her twenties -- found herself raising two children alone with little financial support. Somehow, she managed to take on every role: mother, "father," breadwinner, protector, and emotional anchor, all with an inimitable pluck and flair.

In 1971, Jeanne met and married her soulmate, Ray Walker, then a medical student at Yale. Their union brought together Jeanne's two children and Ray's four -- Christopher, Scott, Daniel, and David -- creating a spirited blended family. On weekends and holidays, their home brimmed with the clamor of six kids, the smells of Jeanne's pies and casseroles, the sounds of Jeanne on the piano and flute, and Chris on the bagpipes, and light-hearted games of charades and "giggle belly," as well as more intense philosophical debates.

Jeanne adored her life in Guilford. She embraced every corner of the town: the green, Jacobs Beach, the library (where she served as a trustee), the tennis courts, and the Handcrafts Center. Her home was a haven -- filled with books, laughter, clay, and music. If Lucille Ball had been a left-leaning New England writer with a potter's wheel and a protest sign, she and Jeanne would have been great friends.

During the 1970's, Jeanne fulfilled her dream of completing her education, earning both her bachelor's and master's degrees in English Literature from Connecticut College, writing her thesis on the poet Richard Wilbur. She remained a passionate reader and writer all her life.

In the 1980s, with their children out in the world, Jeanne and Ray moved to rural Hanover, Connecticut, where Jeanne raised goats, sheep, and a small herd of miniature donkeys -- while continuing to write and work in her pottery studio. She also served AIDS patients at Backus Hospital in Norwich, as their ally and advocate, her presence lifting the heavy weight of isolation. She sat with them, cooked for them, listened to them, and touched them.

In 1998, Jeanne and Ray moved to an even more bucolic home atop a long dirt road in Guilford, Vermont. They spent more than twenty years there surrounded by hills, gardens and cows grazing in the lower fields. Once again, Jeanne found community - volunteering full-time as a guardian ad litem, representing the best interests of vulnerable children in the court system.

In 2018, Jeanne and Ray moved to Brattleboro, Vermont, where Jeanne was soon diagnosed with Alzheimer's. As with everything else, Jeanne handled her disease with good humor and honesty. Though increasingly confused, she was able to puzzle through her days and talk about her experience in a remarkably lucid way. And despite the thickening fog, her once denied 10-year-old self would remember to ask family and friends the question that still mattered the most to her: "how are you doing...and are you OK?"

Jeanne was predeceased by her sister Susan Knebel of Denver, Colorado. She is survived by her husband of fifty-four years, Dr. Ray C. Walker of Brattleboro, Vermont; her son, Stephen D. Whetstone (Cheryl) of Boston; daughter, Krista Whetstone (Sabin Streeter) of Manhattan; and her four stepsons: Christopher T. Walker (the late Martha Walker) of Unionville, Connecticut; Scott H. Walker (Louise) of Boston; Daniel C. Walker (Leslea) of Greenwich, Connecticut; and David E. Walker (Cary) of Lyme, Connecticut. Fourteen grandchildren also survive her: Max and Sofia ; Otis and Hazel; Zion, Josiah (Caitlyn), and Seraphim; Sam (Mckenzie) and Luke; Tim (Johanna), Hannah (Dan), and Doug (Erin); and Lucy and Nick; and great-grandchildren: Misaiel, Adalia, Elise, and Mateo; and Caleb, Ben, Lily and Ray.

Jeanne was cremated in accordance with her wishes. Her ashes rest, for now, in a vintage urn -- every bit as cool as she was -- at home in Brattleboro. One day, the will be mixed with Ray's and laid to rest in the cemetery neighboring the land they loved in Guilford, Vermont.

LIFE CELEBRATION INFORMATION: Family, friends and former colleagues are invited to celebrate her life on Saturday, August 30th, at 2 PM at the Community Center in Black Mountain Estates, 78 Buttonwood Drive, Brattleboro, Vermont. Donations in Jeanne's memory may be made to the Alzheimer's Association, Vermont Chapter, (802) 316-3839, https://www.alz.org/vermont.