Jeanne Helen Hunt

Jeanne Hunt The Joke Lady On January 7, Jeanne Helen (Pellegrini) Hunt, 96, passed on peacefully at Mountain View Community to join her beloved husband Bill, no doubt stopping on her way through the Pearly Gates to hand Saint Peter a joke. Jeanne was born in 1924 in Staten Island, NY, the second of five children and devoted daughter of George and Helen Pellegrini. She grew up on Staten Island, going to work after high school at Continental Insurance Company in NYC where she met her future husband. She and Bill married in 1950 and a few years and two children later bought a home in Levittown, Long Island in New York. There they raised four children and at times cared for Bill's two children from his first marriage. Jeanne was active in the community, for a while running an in-home daycare with neighbors and volunteering as a Brownie and Girl Scout leader. She was a stay at home Mom, but as her children got older one Christmas season she took a temporary job at the local J.C. Penny and ended up staying for 25 years as a sales associate where she made lifelong friends. After years of vacation day trips, family vacations turned to camping every summer in Freedom, NH. After the campground closed, they began renting cabins at Grey Shingles in Wolfeboro, NH. In 1997 when their daughter bought Grey Shingles she and Bill moved full time to Wolfeboro, running the cabin rentals for several years. Jeanne became involved in the Wolfeboro community, volunteering at the barn for the Huggins Hospital Aid Association and attending lunches and activities at the Senior Meals and Dinner Bell. Following the death of her husband, Jeanne kept busy with her prolific letter writing, jigsaw puzzles, and crocheting lap blankets for people at the local nursing homes and blankets for animals at the Humane Society. She also began collecting and reprinting jokes and set up a system to mass produce and organize jokes to hand out in her quest to brighten peoples' day. Soon she was delighted to be greeted in most places by an outstretched hand and a “where's my joke?”. After a bad fall in December 2019 Jeanne became a resident at Mountain View Community Nursing Home where she received excellent care and actually praised the staff who cared for her. Jeanne is survived by her daughter Barbara of Wolfeboro, sons Robert and wife Patti of Calabash, NC and Andy and wife Cyndi of Levittown, NY, stepdaughter Sharon McCormick of Calabash, NC and daughter-in-law Karen Hunt of Danbury, CT, four grandchildren – Jessica (and Jess) Patzuk, Kathy (and Bil) Horinek, Matthew Hunt and Jake Hunt, and three great grandchildren, Jordan and Dylan Patzuk and Lila Horinek, to whom she faithfully hand wrote letters every week. She was predeceased by Bill, the love of her life and her husband of 63 years, and her son James, as well as two sisters, Carole and Rita, and brother Piero. She is survived also by one brother, George Pellegrini of Calastoga, California, and several nieces and nephews. The family would like to thank the many people who may have been subject to “the look” and who happily enjoyed her special sense of humor, accepted her jokes and remarks and in turn brightened her day. We also are deeply grateful to her many friends, fellow parishoners at First Christian Church and most especially to the wonderful staff and volunteers at Mountain View Community and the former Huggins Hospital Adult Day Program. The Baker-Gagne Funeral Home of Wolfeboro is assisting the family with arrangements. Memorial service plans will be made in the spring. Condolences may be shared online at www.baker-gagnefuneralhomes.com. Donations may kindly be made to the Activities Program at Mountain View Community in Ossipee, NH. A couple of final thoughts from Jeanne: I was wondering why the frisbee was getting bigger. Then it hit me.