Jean P. Edmands

Jean Prentiss Edmands, 93, of Manchester passed away peacefully on June 18, 2025, at RiverWoods Manchester.

Jean was born in Danvers, Massachusetts on June 21, 1931, the daughter of the late Doris (Gibson) and Arthur P. Prentiss Sr. She grew up on the family dairy farm, home to Prentiss and Son dairy.

Jean graduated from Danvers High School in 1949. She was a life-long athlete and earned varsity letters in field hockey, basketball and softball. In the days before Title IX, she could be found joining in the boys’ games.

Jean graduated from Vermont Junior College in 1951 and went to work for the Dean of Students at Tufts University.

After 13 years as a homemaker and mother, Jean returned to the paid workforce in 1973 as a salesperson, working from home in Bedford, New Hampshire, and travelling statewide to visit her customers. She finished her long sales career as manager for the southern New England District for Commerce Clearinghouse, based in Farmington, Connecticut.

She retired to Amherst, New Hampshire, where she was a fixture at the Buckmeadow Golf Course from the first day it opened every year until the day it closed. She also played golf in January and February at Heritage Oaks in Sarasota, Florida. She was at her happiest in the open air and hailing a foursome for yet another nine holes.

Jean also volunteered for 20 years as a Granite State Ambassador, mostly answering travelers’ questions at the GSA kiosk at Manchester airport.

She married Howard Foster Nichols in 1957 and Frank Edmands in 1969, who both predeceased her. She is also predeceased by her brother, Arthur Palmer Prentiss Jr., of Saco and Old Orchard Beach, Maine.

Jean is survived by her three daughters and their families including Lucy Nichols and James Farquhar of Canterbury and Greenfield, NH, and their son, Benjamin Nichols-Farquhar of Somerville, MA; Nancy Nichols and James McKim, of Goffstown, NH and their children Andrew McKim of Waltham, MA and Kathy McKim of Marlborough, MA; and Sally Nichols and Gerald (Pumpkin) Lamoine of Pittsfield, NH and Swans Island, Maine.

A celebration of life service will be held at the Quaker Meetinghouse in Canterbury, New Hampshire on Saturday, September 6, 2025, at 10AM, followed by a graveside memorial at Bedford Center Cemetery, in Bedford at 1PM.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be sent to Granite State Ambassadors, 470 Mast Road, Goffstown, NH 03045.