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Jane Elizabeth (Beardsley) Darby, of North Branford, died on Oct. 3 with family by her side. She was born Feb. 21, 1940, in Waterbury, and grew up in Naugatuck with her mother, Rose (Worrell) Beardsley and her sisters, Mary and Virginia. She attended Sacred Heart High School in Waterbury, and then went on to St. Vincent’s School of Nursing, in Bridgeport.

Early in her career, Jane worked in the Emergency Room at Yale New Haven Hospital, where a young New Haven Police officer brought her donuts on the midnight shift. She married Officer Jim Darby in 1963, and they had four children by the time they moved from West Haven to North Branford, in 1968. After working at Yale, Jane moved on to the Shirley Frank Foundation drug and alcohol rehab center, where she became director of nursing. In the 1980s, she became interested in sign language, studying at Northwestern Connecticut Community College, taking classes at Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C., and working as a sign language interpreter in the East Haven school system.

At the age of 60, Jane decided to study martial arts. She joined the Cheezic Tang Soo Do Federation, taking classes in Clinton, under the direction of Master Bill Allard. Fondly known to her much younger classmates as “Grammy-san,” she persevered, and was awarded her first-degree black belt at the age of 65. Jane hated the cold, and she decided about 20 years ago to spend the winter in Daytona Beach Shores, where her sister Mary resided at the time. She went back for 17 years, making new friends, and entertaining her children and grandchildren when they came to visit.

Jane was predeceased by her husband of 58 years, James Darby, Jr.; her mother Rose Beardsley; her father Frederick Beardsley; her granddaughter Josephine Darby; her brothers-in-law John (Butch) Darby, Robert (Brent) Engelstad and Donald Ames; and a sister-in-law, Rosemary (Darby) Slattery. She is survived by her children James E. (Carrie) Darby III, Mary Rose Darby, William R. (Darcy) Darby, and Sean P. (Claudine) Darby; her grandchildren Jessica, James IV, Marco, Emily, Sarah, Stephanie, Jennifer, Megan, Nicholas, Connor, and Caitlyn; her great-grandchildren Brooklyn, Lucas, and Adalyn; her sisters Mary Englestad and Virginia Ames; her cousin Jeanne Parsons; and many nieces and nephews.

The family would like to thank Connecticut Hospice as well as Ocean Meadow Senior Living and Memory Care in Clinton, her home for the past 20 months, where the staff became a very important part of her family.

Relatives and friends will be received from 8 to 9:30 a.m. on Friday, Oct. 8, at W. S. Clancy Memorial Funeral Home, 244 North Main Street, Branford. A Mass of Christian burial will follow at 10 a.m. in St. Ambrose Parish at St. Augustine Church, 30 Caputo Road, North Branford. Burial will be at All Saints Cemetery, 700 Middletown Avenue, North Haven. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to St Jude Children’s Research Hospital. For directions and her online memorial, see www.wsclancy.com.