Barnet, VT -- Jeanne McLaren, devoted wife, mother, grandmother, sister, friend, community leader and volunteer, has died.

Born Jean Patricia Riley in Philadelphia, she is the oldest of seven children of Dorothy Mae Clevenger Riley and Francis Arthur Riley. Jeanne spent her early years in Canton Ohio where her Clevenger aunts and uncles had settled. The family returned to the Philadelphia area and Jeanne graduated from Moylan Pennsylvania's Notre Dame High School for Girls in May 1948.

An elegant beauty with rich black hair and sparkling, playful eyes, she would graduate from Bryn Mawr College as a registered nurse (following her mother into the field) in 1952. But not before meeting Duncan Milo McLaren during time at her family's rustic summer home in Peacham. Back from World War II and a new University of Vermont graduate, Duncan was starting a life in business. In 1953 and following a short courtship, Jeanne came to Barnet as his wife and the couple moved onto Church Street in a house purchased from Duncan's step-mother Harriet Elliott McLaren. This house would be their home for the next six decades.

Though never a farm wife herself, the girl from Philadelphia was quickly surrounded by Vermont farm life, the newest McLaren to join the farming family already rich with female influence including Duncan's grandmother Luvia Somers McLaren, his aunts Elsie Jannette McLaren Crown, Hester May McLaren, Lura Florence McLaren, Harriet, and her sister-in-law, Felicia Iris Dibble McLaren. The farm, with cycles and seasonal needs, would play a large role in McLaren family life for some years.

In Barnet, she quickly set out raising children and becoming an active member in the community. Raised Catholic, she joined the Barnet Congregational Church where, among a large, close-knit circle of young mothers, she joined in decades of service.  Often at the direction of the town's unofficial old-guard with names like Mrs. Pike and Mrs. Gilchrist, Jeanne and her young friends baked, cooked, poured, hosted, sewed, and more for church suppers, town meetings, foliage tours, holiday markets and more.

Barnet's Goodwillie House was a gift to the Barnet Historical Society by Jeanne's father-in-law and she joined Duncan in his passion for local and state history. A project of special significance to the couple was Ben's Mill. Well into the new century, and now herself among the old-guard, Jeanne continued to manage church and town events.

She held a number of roles outside her home. As a registered nurse, Jeanne worked with Home Health Care of Vermont, and in the Barnet school system. She became a partner with her husband in McLaren Realty, having also worked with him at McLaren's Inc.. For many years she was an active volunteer with the American Heart Association, and for more years she prepared and served Christmas dinners with the American Red Cross of Myrtle Beach. In 1988 she traveled to The Soviet Union as a citizen delegate for US-USSR Bridges For Peace. Duncan and Jeanne were awarded 'Citizen of the Year' by the Barnet Grange in 2011.

Jeanne had a number of passions in life, including travel (the couple traveled extensively) and her well maintained home, which she opened generously. From a large, gregarious family herself and married to a man who enjoyed a gathering, she entertained groups large and small, quiet and not, on Church Street, at their camp on Harvey's Lake, in North Myrtle Beach, and later in South Burlington.

Her own home would welcome six grandchildren and great grandchildren, and held the greatest passion of her life: her husband of 62 years and the family that she raised. Jeanne was a partner to Duncan in all things, and when it came time to leave Barnet for their next adventure, she faced the move with grace grounded in the knowledge that she would continue to care for those she loved, and that she herself was cradled in her own family's care.

The couple left Barnet with some fanfare in the summer of 2012, settling in South Burlington. Facing adversity of her own, Jeanne moved with her husband to their final home at Mansfield Place in Essex Junction, where she continued to care for her husband, her family, and to care for a new, close-knit circle of friends, until her death.

Jeanne Riley McLaren was born on August 18, 1931, and died peacefully in the early hours of April 30, 2016. Her husband Duncan died earlier this year on February 13th.

Jeanne is survived by her daughter Patricia Jeanne McLaren Cram and her husband U.S MSG Michael Cram of Milton, her son Robert Duncan McLaren and his wife Diane Noel McLaren of Essex Junction, her son Mark Riley McLaren of New York City, her brother Jeffrey David Riley and his husband Richard Dunn of Barnet, and her sister Jane Riley Johnson of Westtown Pennsylvania. She is also survived by six grandchildren, seven great-grandchildren including U.S PFC Kaleb Landue-Robinson, one great-great grandchild, three sisters-in-law, and numerous nieces and nephews.

In addition to her husband, Jeanne is pre-deceased by her parents, her parents-in-law, her brothers James Leroy Riley, John 'Jimmy' Francis Riley, Jerry Stephen Riley, her sister Joan Riley Cochrane, her brothers-in-law Merrill Sommers McLaren and Martin Wakefield McLaren and their wives Felicia, Carin Eleanor Person McLaren, Helen Baker McBride McLaren.

A service for Jeanne will be held at the Barnet Congregational Church in Barnet VT on Saturday May 7th at 2:00pm. A reception hosted by Jeanne's family follows and donations in lieu of flowers can be made to the following organizations:

Visiting Nurses Association of Vermont (vnhcare.org)

Alzheimer's Association of Vermont (alz.org)

Barnet Public Library (802-633-4436)