1913 – 2014

CARMEL-BY-THE-SEA, Calif. — Jane Wolcott Welles Addicott passed away peacefully at her home in Carmel-by-the-Sea, Calif., at the age of 101, surrounded by loving family, on Monday, Nov. 3.

Born at home in Wethersfield, Conn., Jane was educated at the King Low Heywood School in Connecticut, Rollins College in Florida and Exeter College in England, later receiving her master’s degree in art from Columbia University/New College in New York. She joined the faculty for the first demonstration school at Ohio State, where she met her husband, Kenneth Klein Addicott. They were married in Truro, Mass., at North Church in 1937.

Along with education, travel seemed to be one of the driving forces for Jane and Ken. They drove across the country on their honeymoon to San Jose, Calif., then later, back to New York for a job with the Museum of Natural History. They lived intermittently in Washington, D.C.; restored a family home in the mountains of Western Maine; and traveled with Ken’s diplomatic work all over the world, including to Asia, Europe and South America.

Jane was a devoted mother and creative early-childhood educator with an ever-positive spirit, who studied cooking with the Benedictine Sisters in Tokyo, volunteered for 25 years at Franklin Memorial Hospital and was known for her loving spirit and gracious hospitality. She traded good chickens for bad in Appalachia, read and wrote letters for burn patients at Tokyo General Hospital, volunteered for Martin Luther King Jr., and managed her home and her role as embassy spouse with enthusiasm.

On her 100th birthday, she said she “might take up golf one of these days.”

Jane is survived by her children, Peter Welles Addicott (Fran) of Memphis, Tenn., Susan Jane Addicott of Carmel, Calif., and Judith Addicott Kimmel (Joel) of Mill Valley, Calif.; six granddaughters; and seven great-grandchildren.

She was predeceased by her parents, Clayton and Bertha Libby Welles; and her sisters, Judith Beach Welles and Nancy Welles Pendleton (Alden).