Jane Hamlin Hamlin Bragdon
Died on Wednesday, October 12, at the age of 95 .
Jane Bragdon was born August 22, 1916 to B. Nason Hamlin and Rosamond Peabody Hamlin in Canton, Massachusetts. She grew up in Dedham, MA, and spent summers in a cottage her father built in Dennis on Cape Cod. She went to school at Beaver Country Day and Miss Winsor’s School, attended McGill University and enjoyed taking courses at the Radcliffe Seminars for many years. Jane was a medical secretary for two years before marrying Edward Hamlin, Jr., MD, on New Year’s Eve, 1942. They settled in Dedham, raising four daughters and Edward’s son.
Vacations were spent in their house, Little Neck, at the mouth of the Slocum River in South Dartmouth, MA, salt-water fishing, swimming and picnicking on the beach. In 1968, Edward retired from his surgical practice and teaching at the Harvard Medical School, and they moved year-round to Little Neck. Jane volunteered at St. Luke’s Hospital in New Bedford and at the New Bedford Library.
Ed Hamlin died in 1973 and in 1975 Jane married Henry Bragdon, an American historian and retired teacher from Phillips Exeter Academy. They enjoyed traveling to England and cruising the Mediterranean. Henry died in 1980. In 1985 Jane started spending the winter months in Santa Barbara to escape the worst of New England winters, to be near her daughter, Katy, and to take many Adult Ed courses: jewelry, French, literature and Anne McCloughly’s poetry class, all of which she thoroughly enjoyed.
In 2007 she moved into Casa San Miguel, an assisted living facility on the Mesa, and enjoyed the year-round warm weather and her many Santa Barbara friends.
Her passions included walking, 40 years of choral singing, bird watching, salt-water swimming and fishing, reading, Shakespeare play-reading, chocolate, roast beef and her children.
She is pre-deceased by her brother, Francis, her husbands, and granddaughter, Kate Lincoln Hamlin. She is survived by her sister, Rosamond Hamlin Groves Thomas of Eastham, MA, and by her children, Ned Hamlin of Newburgh, NY, Katy Zappala of Santa Barbara, Jenny Russell of Sheffield, MA, Hilary Hamlin of Tucson, AZ, and Charlotte Hamlin of South Dartmouth, MA, sons- and daughters-in-law, Suzanne Hamlin, Robert Zappala, and Hilary Russell, grandchildren, Nathaniel Hamlin, Lydia Russell-McDade and Caitlin Russell, and great grandchildren, Stella Kate Hamlin and Levi Thomas Hamlin.
The family is very grateful to Christopher and LeiLani Browne, Katerina Zamyatina, and Ellen Galgo, the past and present owners and caregiver of Casa San Miguel as well as the rest of the amazing staff, for the wonderful care and companionship they gave to Jane.
A memorial service will take place at a future date. In lieu of flowers, friends may remember the Foundation for Santa Barbara City College, 721 Cliff Drive Santa Barbara, CA 93109 (reference Adult Education).