Jean Christie Hawthorne

Born Methil, Fife, Scotland, UK

E. Jean C. Hawthorne was the sixth child and only daughter of Reverend Omand Mackenzie (an ordained Church of Scotland, Presbyterian minister) and Isabella J. Spence (artist and sculptress). They married in 1914 and had five sons older than Jean.

– Ian and Thomas who both died in infancy or early childhood, George (lost at sea during the Second World War), Gilbert and Kenneth (now both deceased).

Jean attended James Gillespie's High School for Girls, Edinburgh, Scotland. As the Second World War progressed, she went to boarding school at Esdale School which was based in Ayton Castle, Scotland – close to the border between England and Scotland. The school is visible still from the London Kings Cross train on its way to Edinburgh. While there she prepared for entry to medical school, supported by her parents, particularly her father, who tragically died suddenly in his early fifties of a heart attack at their home in Frederick Street, Edinburgh.

Jean successfully attended classes (including anatomy, physiology, botany, physics and chemistry) at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland and the University of Durham in the north of England. She also loved to cycle and covered many roads from the north of England to John o’ Groats at the very northern tip of Scotland, on her heavy black bike without the aid of gears. She mostly cycled with her good friend and fellow medical student, Jean Higgins, with whom she sadly lost touch, but never forgot.

Jean was in her second/third year of medicine when she met and married (August 19, 1948) the man she always loved dearly and who survives her, Victor Morrison Hawthorne. His younger sister, Mavis, (now living in Totnes, Devon, England) was bridesmaid. They were married for 65 years until Jean’s sad death.

Victor was a ‘mature’ medical student, (five years senior to Jean), and had returned home to Rutherglen, Glasgow when the Second World War ended having served his country in Burma. He then studied medicine at the University of Glasgow, Scotland. As a student, Victor was a potato crop inspector with the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries for Scotland and found temporary accommodation, as a lodger, with Mrs. Mackenzie and her family in Frederick Street, Edinburgh where he then first met Jean.

They had three daughters: Hilary (1949-2003), Wendy (b.1951, resident in Edinburgh, Scotland) and Rosalind Kirk (b.1954, resident in East Lansing, Michigan, USA), and married to Willie W. Kirk, three grandchildren Nicky (b.1977, resident in Dorado, Puerto Rico), Robyn (b.1980, resident in Croydon, England) and Laurie (b.1982, resident in Lansing, MI, USA). Nicky and his wife, Michelle had a son (great grandson to Jean and Victor), Matteo (b.2011) and gave birth to their second son, Luca Mackenzie Kirk on January 1, 2014. His middle name, Mackenzie, was given for Jean.

Jean found it too much of a challenge to continue her medical studies after the birth of her first child but continued to develop her medical knowledge throughout her life. She was a botany demonstrator at the University of Glasgow for many years. She was a loving and much loved wife, mother, grandmother, great grandmother, sister-in-law, aunt and friend. All family spouses and partners were extra special to Jean.

To Victor, she was “my lovely, sweet Jean”; to Ros, her daughter, she was “my very special mum. I loved her and was very proud of her and her hospitality, garden and interests”; to Laurie, her granddaughter, she was “My strong, wonderful, amazing granny. As grandpa would say, you are a ‘Plllar of Strength’ to all our family and everyone she meets.”; Robyn, her granddaughter, wrote “Granny, I will miss our long telephone calls and the warm feeling when you answered with delight……As an adult she was very much a friend as well as a doting granny. She shared in every life event and she has been a comforting presence to me across the miles”. Her grandson, Nicky, fondly described her; “She was granny. The person who always had ice cream and chocolate cake in the fridge and it was okay to have it for breakfast. The person who always had potatoes with everything. The person for whom ‘No thanks, I’m full’ had no meaning….She always had a smile. She was always busying everywhere. She always put the turkey in a week too early. She wrote beautiful cards and never missed an opportunity to acknowledge a special occasion in someone’s life. She was inquisitive – always had to know what was happening with someone she cared about.”

In addition to hosting her family and friends with cooking and great baking, she was a passionate gardener, animal lover and collector of antiques. Jean, Victor, Hilary and their dogs enjoyed walks on the beach at Ayr and at Culzean Castle, Scotland, before they moved with two Cavalier King Charles spaniels and two cats to Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA when Victor accepted the position of Chair of the Department of Epidemiology in the School of Public Health at the University of Michigan.

They subsequently remained happily in Ann Arbor, becoming naturalized US citizens, and enjoying the friendship and support of neighbors and friends such as Marg Rookes and her family. Highlights of her recent life centered on visits from family, friends and dogs, gardening and the physical fitness class run by Britt.

We will all miss Jean.

“And since to look at things in bloom

Fifty springs are little room,

About the woodlands I will go

To see the cherry hung with snow”

A.E.Housman