Jane McMahon

After a painful lifelong battle with limb-girdle muscular dystrophy, Jane McMahon, 81, died on Oct. 9, 2022 after a fatal fall. A North Eastham resident since 1994, the public library reports that she borrowed 2,454 books, 715 of which were renewed.

Born in Pittsfield on July 8, 1941 to the late Cornelius McMahon and Helen [Dunn] McMahon, Jane graduated from Pittsfield High School in 1959 and received a BA in math from Our Lady of the Elms College in 1963. She then began helping underserved children by volunteer teaching at mission schools in rural New Mexico. When she returned to Pittsfield, Jane worked at Operation Head Start and was a Title I school teacher in Pittsfield and Somerville.

Jane moved to Springfield in 1970 and a few years and three children later, opened her home to the state’s first Vietnamese refugees; foreign students; and teenage boys from a residential home that had burned down. She was the first woman president and two-term chair of the Center for Human Development Board of Directors, on which she served for 18 years. Jane was a member of the Springfield Title I Parents’ Advisory Council for 16 years and was its president for two terms. Charities were important to her, and she was active in liberal political campaigns. Jane was a member of St. Anthony’s Catholic Church, where she was a Sunday school teacher.

After working for the 1980 Census, where she became close friends with Deb Kern, the pair opened A Likely Story Children’s Bookshop in downtown Springfield. Groups of children would stop to listen to stories or meet children’s book authors-illustrators, such as Steven Kellogg. Jane handmade Cabbage Patch Kids, quilts, dollhouses and more.

She spent three months at the National Institute of Health, where neurologists studied her muscular dystrophy, but no cure was ever found. As the diseased progressed, Jane switched jobs and became an office-factory store manager at Deerfield Woodworking. After moving to Cape Cod, she became a member of the Eastham Public Access Committee and worked for a local mortgage company.

She is survived by her children, Bob and his wife Kristen Kalill of Putney, Vt., Peter Kalill and his wife Kathleen Sullivan Kalill of Eastham, Ann Kalill Wood of Provincetown; siblings, Connie and his wife Kathleen McMahon of Pittsfield and Carol McMahon of Eliot, Maine; grandchildren Roxie Hadaway of Provincetown, Gordie Kalill of Putney, Vt. and Fox Kalill of Eastham; and many nieces, nephews and friends.

Instead of flowers, please send memorial contributions to Disabled American Veterans at dave.org or to smiletrain.org. A celebration of her life will be held in the near future.

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.nickersonfunerals.com.