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03/14/2014 11:00 AMJean Washburn Hernandez died peacefully on March 1 at her home in Essex Meadows. She was 93 years old.
Jean was born on Sept. 20, 1920, in Brooklyn, New York, to Lawrence and Margaret Washburn and was the oldest of three sisters. Raised in Montreal, Canada, and Scarsdale, New York, she was the fourth generation of women in her family to graduate from Packer Collegiate Institute in Brooklyn Heights, New York. After a childhood bout of polio, she attended Mt. Holyoke College where she contracted tuberculosis. After recuperating in upstate New York and Arizona, she resumed her studies at the University of Arizona.
At the start of World War II, Jean enlisted in the American Red Cross and served at an Army Air Force Base in Arizona, at Camp Edwards in Massachusetts, Otis Field on Cape Cod, and at Washington D.C.’s St. Elizabeth Hospital. In all locations she tended the returning wounded, particularly those impacted by psychological trauma.
Before the war, she met her future husband, Silvio E. Hernandez, in Havana, Cuba, while staying with family friends. She married him in 1946, when he returned from wartime service with the U.S. Army in Europe. They first resided in New York, but shortly after the births of their two children were sent by Westinghouse Electric to Madrid, Spain, where they remained for eight years. From there they moved to Havana, her husband’s birthplace, a year before the Cuban Revolution. After being witness to the tumultuous changes brought on by Castro’s policies, they fled in 1960, settling in Essex so as to be near Jean’s parents who had retired there. She remained a resident of Essex for 54 years as an active and contributing member of the community.
Jean was a homemaker and dedicated volunteer. She was on the board of the Florence Griswold Museum, in Old Lyme, where as a volunteer she initiated and ran a successful travel program for the members of the museum. She was president of the Essex Garden Club, on the board of the Essex Library Association, and active with St. John’s Episcopal Church in Essex, the Child & Family Agency of Southeast Connecticut, and many other charitable and community organizations. Jean and her husband loved to travel and together they enjoyed taking extended trips throughout the world.
Jean was preceded in death by her loving husband of 55 years and more recently by her gentle companion, George (Bud) Lethbridge. She is survived by her daughter Margaret (Maggie) Hernandez of Key Biscayne, Florida, her son Robert (Laurie) Hernandez of Essex, and their sons Alexander and Christopher.
A memorial service will be held May 2 at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Essex at 10 a.m. Memorial donations can be made to the Florence Griswold Museum, 96 Lyme St., Old Lyme, CT 06371.