Jane Friedman

A true daughter of Lynnfield, Jane Perry Thayer Friedman died at home, December 6, 2015. Most of Ms. Friedman's life was spent within two miles of the Lynnfield Meeting House, her mother, Donna Perry Thayer, having moved to Lynnfield in 1918 with her parents, Walter and Mary Perry, and her uncle Frank Perry. They farmed at 505 Main Street, selling poultry and eggs, and later operated an antique store there for many years. Walter Perry served as Selectman in Lynnfield in the late 1920s and early 30s. Ms. Friedman was born Feb. 5, 1930 to Donna and Ernest Thayer and continued to live on Main Street until 1941 when the town bought the property for what would be Lynnfield High School, and later Lynnfield Middle School. The family relocated to 665 Lowell Street where they lived for 27 years. Ms. Friedman graduated from Wakefield High in 1948, attended Vermont Junior College and settled into married life with Jack Friedman in 1950. Most of the next 30 years were devoted to family and children. She lived briefly in Bristol, Tenn., and for 18 years in Weston, Conn., but in retirement returned to Lynnfield. Every summer of her life brought her to Freedom, N. H., to the cottage her father built on Ossipee Lake. Her life embodied age-old New England virtues of industriousness, self-reliance, modesty and frugality. She made rugs, sweaters, hats, lamps, hooked tapestries and countless other crafts; she cooked elaborate meals and was a gifted and experimental baker. She was an avid reader and book collector, an interest she passed on to her children, who all became booksellers. She devoted some 35 years to her book club and in her forties became a librarian; her last position was at the Lynnfield Public Library. Ms. Friedman's New England roots were deep and she uncovered many of them in 30 years of dogged research and travel, leaving behind a documented genealogy that reaches back to Charlemagne and William the Conqueror, with many early American, Pilgrim and Puritan branches, and membership in the Daughters of the American Revolution. She was a longtime member and officer of the Lynnfield Historical Society.

Ms. Friedman leaves behind children Donna Thayer Friedman & husband Hillel Stavis of Arlington, Myles Ernest Friedman & wife M. Virginia Chambers of Pittsboro, N.C., and Ellen Perry Friedman & husband David MacLennan of Lynnfield; grandchildren Myles and LilyJane Stavis, Jack and Bailey Friedman, and Willa MacLennan; and friends dating back more than 80 years.

A memorial service will be held at St. Paul's Episcopal Church, 127 Summer St., Lynnfield on Monday, January 4, 2016 at 1 p.m. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to: U.S. Fund for UNICEF, 125 Maiden Lane, New York, NY 10038. Arrangements are in the care of McDonald Funeral Home, Wakefield.

January 04, 2016
1:00 PM

St. Paul's Episcopal Church
127 Summer Street
Lynnfield, MA 01940