Jane Walker Ballman

1930-2016

Jane Walker Ballman, age 86, of Gulf Breeze, FL, passed away Sunday, May 8, 2016. She was born at Gatineau, Ontario, Canada on January 2, 1930. Her father ran the local paper mill. After her family moved to Maine, she graduated from the University of Maine at Orono. She then moved to Amherst, Massachusetts to pursue graduate school programs. One night in the fall of 1948, she went to a square dance lesson held on the Amherst College football field. Nearly 500 people showed up to learn how to square dance, 250 young men lined up on the other side. When the whistle blew, the line of men walked to meet the women’s line, when Jane looked up in front of her, there, stood Richard “Dick” Ballman, she agreed to square dance with him and they had a lovely evening together.

After two years of courtship, Jane & Dick married on December 31, 1952. Jane Taught science at the Grandby Middle School and Dick worked for the local Monsanto Chemical Plant. Over the next few years they were blessed with four children, Anne & Chris Malone, Richard W. & Rosalyn Ballman, Elizabeth & Ron Larsen and Gretchen & J. Seidler; 7 grandchildren and 3 great grandchildren. In 1970, they moved to Gulf Breeze, FL where Dick worked in the largest nylon plant in the world. In 2012, Jane was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, which after several years contributed to her death. She will be sorely missed by her children, friends and needless to say her distraught husband of 63 years.

A Celebration of Jane’s Life will be Friday, May 13, 2016 at 10 AM at Bayview Fisher-Pou Chapel with Pastor Danny Loffredo officiating. Interment will follow in Bayview Memorial Park. The family will receive friends from 9 AM until the service hour. Messages of condolences may be made at www.bayviewfisher-pouchapel.com.

Bayview Fisher-Pou Chapel has been entrusted with the arrangements.