BRUNSWICK — Jane Ault Lindholm, 99, died peacefully Dec. 11 at Thornton Hall Assisted Living, where she had resided for five years after the death of her husband.

She was born in Ellsworth on Sept. 1, 1915, the third of four children of Charles Ault and Lucretia Leakey. Her two brothers both died as children, and she was 5 when her mother succumbed to leukemia.

Charles Ault, a successful manufacturer of women’s shoes, married Ruth Dobson in 1921 and they had eight children together, Lindholm’s half-siblings: John, Robert, Richard, Ruth, Peter, James, David and Sara. Lindholm grew up in Auburn, and after graduating Edward Little High School in 1933, attended Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts.

During the Great Depression, her father’s business failed, and Lindholm returned to Maine and enrolled as a day student at Bates College. There, she met her future husband, Milton Lindholm. The couple were married in 1938 at the family’ summer home in Wayne.

In 1944, the couple returned to Bates, where Milton was named the college’s first director of admissions for men, work he continued for 32 years. Bates College was at the center of their lives. Jane took on a variety of positions on campus, in the library, the registrar’s office and the publications department. The work suited her, as she was an avid reader and a lover of language. Lindholm could recite from memory lengthy poems and soliloquies, and wrote poetry of her own.

Off campus, her social conscience found expression in local organizations such as the United Baptist Church and the YWCA, and she greatly appreciated Lewiston’s Franco-American heritage and industrial history.

Advertisement

Lindholm is survived by brothers Richard, Peter and David; sisters Ruth and Sara; her daughter, Martha Lentz, of Brunswick; son Karl and his wife, Brett Millier, of Middlebury, Vermont; grandchildren, Jane Lindholm and her husband Adrian Hicks, and David, Peter and Anne Lindholm; granddaughter, Sara Perry and her husband, Roger; grandson, John Lentz and his wife, Samantha Cook; and great-grandchildren, Elijah Jackson, Isabella Jackson, Spencer Perry, Micah Perry and Dylan Hicks.

A service to celebrate Lindholm’s life will take place at the Unitarian-Universalist Church of Brunswick, 15 Pleasant St., Brunswick, at 1 p.m., Saturday, Jan. 10, 2015.

Donations in her name may be made to the Milton and Jane Lindholm Scholarship Fund at Bates College, the Jubilee Center in Lewiston or the Good Shepherd Food Bank of Auburn.

Sidebar Elements


Lindholm


Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.

Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.