Virginia Chandler

Lebanon, N.H. — Virginia Fehr Wells Chandler died surrounded by her loving family on Friday, April 8, 2016. Ginny was born on August 3, 1919, the daughter of Raymond Wells and Olga Fehr Wells. She grew up in Waban, Mass., graduating from Newton High School in 1937. She graduated from Colby Junior College in 1939, establishing a path that her three sisters, to whom she was devoted, would follow.

She married James Chandler on June 20, 1942. It was a marriage that would thrive with humor and love for 65 years until Jim’s death in 2007. Together they lovingly raised three boys in Longmeadow, Mass., retiring in 1980 to Meriden, N.H. Ginny and Jim were among the first residents of Harvest Hill when it opened in 1996. Ginny remained the “last of the firsts” until her death and the care she received from staff was extraordinary.

Ginny is survived by her three sons: James Chandler and wife Andrea of Berlin, Vt.; Raymond Wells Chandler and wife Susan of Cornish, N.H.; and Geoffrey Chandler of Eagle River, Wis.; nine grandchildren: Sage Kennedy, Wells Chandler, North Waringa, Celeste McCool, Robert Chandler, Alyssa Fitzgerald, Devan Chandler, Kate Chandler, and Abbie Chandler, and 14 great-grandchildren (with two more due this month). She was predeceased by her parents, her husband and two sisters, Ramona Mercer and husband, Bill, and Olga Dalton and husband, John, and a granddaughter, Nicole Chandler. She is survived by her sister Gloria McCreery and many loving nieces and nephews and their families.

Ginny was passionate in all that she did. She was devoted to her family and extended family. Her life for years was filled with fabulous family get togethers at her parents’ Wellswood Farm in New Boston, N.H.; St. Simons Island, Ga. and the homes of her sons. Her last Labor Day celebration was attended by 66 family members with “Nin” holding court as matriarch to all.

She was open-minded, forever young, and high spirited. She loved to travel and had a wonderful visual sense of the world. Atlases were always on her shelf, instantly referenced when a child or grandchild was off on a journey. Her greatest passion, which brought her much praise, was her gardening. Trained by her artist mother, she created gardens whose sense of color and design and variety of hues and textures were the envy of all who observed them. Until she died, her appreciation of the nuances of colors never failed. Ginny was a generous, caring, loving and loyal sister, wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, aunt and friend. Her legacy is well represented in all of her offspring.

A memorial service will be held at the Dwinell Room at Harvest Hill, 10 Alice Peck Day Drive, Lebanon, N.H. at 2 p.m. on Saturday, April 16.

Arrangements are with the Stringer Funeral Home & Crematorium, 146 Broad Street, Claremont, N.H.

To view an online memorial or send a private message of condolence, visit www.stringerfh.com.