Jean Sprague (McAllaster) Baker Chapman

FALMOUTH – Jean Sprague (McAllaster) Baker Chapman of Falmouth, died on Jan. 17, 2023 in Portland. She was 95.

Born in Watertown, N.Y., on March 25, 1927, she was the daughter of Joseph F. and Virginia Sprague McAllaster. She grew up in Gouverneur, N.Y., where her paternal ancestors had lived since the 18th century. She was educated in the Gouverneur schools and at Bennington College, where she studied psychology.

Throughout her childhood and adolescence she was a student of music, primarily voice and violin. She attended music camp for many summers, and her talent and work ethic earned her a trip to New York City, N.Y. to meet the renowned Polish tenor, Jan Pierce and hear him in concert. She was a lifelong aficionado of opera and symphonic music.

In 1947, The Year Maine Burned, she was engaged to marry Richard M. Baker Jr. of Cape Elizabeth. The wedding was set for Nov. 15; Richard, who was helping fight the fires, called in late October to suggest a postponement. Jean had a counter suggestion: Be in Gouverneur on Nov. 15 or don’t bother to come at all. They married on schedule and settled in Maine, where both lived the rest of their lives.

The couple had five children in the first decade of their marriage. In 1953, shortly after the birth of their fourth child, Richard was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, which soon left him a paraplegic. Until his death in 1978, Jean was his sole caretaker and his soul mate, as well as the heavy lifter in the rearing of their children and the care of their home. Jean set for her children a rare example of courage and devotion, grounded in love and tested by adversity. Her work consisted of 19-hour days (barring the occasional—unsurprising—migraine), yet she was uncomplaining, optimistic, and unsparing in her sympathetic attention to skinned knees, teenage heartbreak, the existential crises of young adulthood, and serious challenges faced by her family and friends.

Jean often said that the purpose of her life was to care for others. But as her children left home to take up jobs and create new families, and after Richard died in 1978, she turned to caring for her community. Volunteering had been an early avocation for her, beginning with the Junior League in the early 1950s. It seemed that she would no sooner take up a volunteer position than she would be elected president or chair of the board–people knew a smart and capable woman when they saw one. Among her most prized affiliations were with the Women’s Exchange, the Maine Historical Society, and the Foreside Community Church. She also served as vice president, president, and treasurer of Applegate II, where she lived from 1990 to 2014.

Jean was devoted, too, to her extended family and her friends. She kept in touch and showed up. She sent gifts to new babies. She said yes to invitations, attended weddings in faraway places, and got in the car to go to people in need of sleeves-rolled-up help. She was a rock.

She sent clippings (later her scans), remembered favorite foods (her peanut brittle was the best ever made anywhere, and don’t get us started on the cherry cheesecake), was a prodigious reader, knew exactly where to find the elusive perfect outfit, took phone calls from sobbing persons, loved animals, loved babies even more, held on fiercely to family heirlooms, and almost never missed a radio broadcast of the Metropolitan Opera.

In 1991, Jean married Lawrence D. Chapman, also of Falmouth, and unofficially adopted his three daughters, Margo Pearson, Lindsay Henderson, and Gail Close, whom she adored. Lawrence died of Alzheimer’s Disease in 2005, and Jean cared for him throughout that devastating illness.

Jean believed in God and that He provided all of us with a role to play in life–our mission, should we accept it. Because she did accept her mission, waves of love and strength of character, forgiveness and understanding, integrity and loyalty were sent into the world. Not to mention the notion that one might so love her family and friends that she would give her life to them.

Jean leaves her children, Virginia Henning of Harrisburg, Pa., Dan Baker of South Portland, Laura Preti of Cape Elizabeth, Eleanor Baker of Falmouth, and Sally Baker of Santa Fe, N.M., along with their spouses Paul Henning, Ruthann Baker, Richard Preti, and Thomas Saturley.

She also is survived by eight grandchildren, William Eckerson, Benjamin Eckerson, Jean Cousins, Thomas Preti, Philip Preti, Leslie Henderson, Siobhan Baker, and Hannah Saturley and their spouses and partners, and grandchildren of her heart, Samantha Saturley Kelley and Gerald McAlister; seven great-grandchildren survive her; along with sisters-in-law Sally Baker McAllaster and Harriet Welsh McAllaster; and several nieces and nephews.

She was predeceased by her adored brothers Joseph Emerson McAllaster and Archie Freeman MacAllaster.

Jean’s children are especially grateful to the staff of The Cedars Sam Cohen Households for their loving care of our mother.

A Celebration of Life will be held in the spring. Arrangements by Hobbs Funeral Home, South Portland. Online condolences may be expressed at http://www.hobbsfuneralhome.com.

In lieu of flowers, donations in Jean’s memory may be made to the Foreside Community Church and the Animal Refuge League of Greater Portland.