Remembering Jean Airey

This Pioneer Days might be packed with activities but it will be missing one very important person. Jean Airey, who passed away from cancer at 73 on May 6, volunteered more time to the event than most people know.

Jean Airey was born Nancy Jean Alsten on Jan. 23, 1943 in Albany, NY. She received a B.A. degree from Randolph Macon Women’s College in Lynchburg, VA. She started visiting Englewood when she was still in high school, and continued in the early 1960s after she married Bill Airey, her husband of 54 years. They had three children and nine grandchildren, and shared a home in Aurora, IL, but most people will tell you that Jean’s heart was definitely in Englewood.

A retired engineer specializing in communications, Jean was anything but retired down here. In addition to caring for her father, who lived to 105, most will say, thanks to Jean, a writer, editor, musician, Webmaster, she was everywhere in the community. Jean was an active member of the Suncoast Writers Guild, and the group’s president. She was committed to the work of the Lemon Bay Historical Society, and served as its vice president. To raise money for the group, she wrote and staged a series of plays like “The Case of the Crushed Conch,” featuring Billery Dean, her spin on sleuth Ellery Queen. She was a volunteer for the Lemon Bay Playhouse and designed its website. 

Jean wrote “Englewood Fireside Tales,” a collection of stories inspired by the town and its characters, and had a hand in many other books as a mentor and editor. “Jean helped me write my two books,” said Nancy Wille. “She was a very talented woman. She did so much and she was a good friend.”

At a celebration of Jean’s life held last month at the Green Street Church, one of Jean’s favorite places and the home to many of her popular shows and concerts, people from all these groups joined Jean’s husband and family to pay tribute to Jean, sharing stories and photos that illustrated her extraordinary commitment to the community.

 “I knew Jean’s love for the Englewood community. Even when we lived in Illinois she talked about Englewood,” said Bill Airey. “I didn’t realize the impact she had on the programs and on the people and how much they appreciated her, but they made it known (at the celebration) that day.” 

Linda Lou Lewis met Jean through the Suncoast Writers Guild and collaborated with her on plays and musical programs. “She gave so much of her time and talent to the Guild, getting our annual anthology to press, helping to design our new logo and getting our website up and going,” said Linda Lou. 

The pair played together in Englewood’s Little Band of Writers, where Jean strummed the ukulele her father made for her. Linda Lou said she was amazed at how her friend juggled so many projects so effortlessly. “Animal rescue, literacy, Big Brothers Big Sisters, the Moose, women’s rights, science fiction… She was always prepared, always on time and so focused that the people with whom she volunteered sometimes thought, “This must be all she does.” But they soon realized that was not so.”

Not so at all. In addition to all those organizations, she was a major force behind Pioneer Days. Chris and Erick Phelps worked with Jean for eight years on Englewood’s biggest event and in that time they became friends.

“She was an engineer, she created menus for restaurants,” recalled Chris in awe of her friend’s accomplishments. “This was a person who lived 20 people’s lives in one lifetime.”

For Pioneer Days, she designed the website, maintained the database, worked with vendors, assigned booths, kept up the email contacts, helped set the parade lineup and emailed all the participants, said Chris. “She was our rock.

When last year’s theme “Color Me Englewood” was chosen (and approved by Jean,) Jean decided she would create a coloring book. Not only did Jean volunteer to do all this, she paid for her own supplies, said Chris. “She probably put in close to a full-time job nine months a year.” 

When Jean became ill, Chris said that Pioneer Days was the last thing she would give up. And Chris and Erick weren’t willing or ready to give her up. “We were so close. Her not being here affects me all the time. She would always have the final say,” said Chris. “Now we’re saying “What would Jean do?”

Bill Airey said that his family will keep Jean’s spirit and love for Pioneer Days alive by sponsoring the Parade trophy for Best Patriotic Float in her memory this year and in years to come. 

Linda Lou Lewis summed up her friend’s ability to do so much with so much heart. “Perhaps the most remarkable thing about Jean was that each of us who worked with her – and there were so many of us – were quite certain that we must be at the epicenter of Jean’s world. Our community is stronger because of Jean and if we want to keep it that way, we have only to follow her example.”