HANOVER — Baking was more than a hobby for Jeannette Langley King Kendall.
Langley was a very precise baker, following each recipe carefully, including leveling measuring cups. It was how she approached all endeavors, with an always-do-your-best attitude.
“She had a lot of varied interests, and that is a trait we picked up on,” Langley’s daughter, Sonya Campbell said of herself and her two siblings, Maureen and Glenn. “If you are going to do something, do the very best you can. That was part of her setting a very high standard for us.”
Langley, whose daughter asked that she be referred to by her maiden name, was not domineering, instead she had a persuasive, yet gentle, way of helping them do better if she thought they could, Campbell said.
“Mom was a very gentle soul,” her daughter said. “If she felt you were slacking, she would come alongside you and help you along. That was her Christian nature, never being critical but she wanted to see us all do our best.”
Langley, who died Aug. 8 from advanced Parkinson’s disease at the age of 88, was known for her deep commitment to her family and service to her community in many different ways.
Born in Lebanon in 1937, Langley was the third of four children and only daughter of Alice and Averon Langley.
Campbell, of Hanover, said her mom grew up around large families on both her mother and father’s sides. Her parents worked in manufacturing in Windsor during World War II and her grandfather worked for the railroad. Langley grew up in a small house on Glen Road in Lebanon, surrounded by many aunts, uncles and cousins.
“They were a hardworking, very industrious and close-knit family,” Campbell said. “A strong work ethic was deep in her entire family.”
When she volunteered at the United Canaan Methodist later in life, Langley took on many different roles, maybe even church janitor, Campbell said.
“There was no hat too large or too small for mom.”
Throughout her life, Langley volunteered often, including hosting coffee hours at the United Methodist Churches in Canaan, Enfield and Lebanon, teaching cooking classes for 4-H when her children were involved and holding fundraisers to send children from her church to camp. She chaperoned high school band trips and her involvement in the West Lebanon High School Alumni Association for many years earned her the association’s Distinguished Alumni Award in 2005.
“Mom was a very busy person. It was very rare that she had an idle moment,” Campbell said. “She had a boundless amount of energy and was always willing to share the talents she developed with the community. It was her nature to be a very giving and a very sharing person.”
Langley graduated from the former West Lebanon High School in 1955 and began working in the Canaan Elementary School as a teacher’s aide when her oldest son, Glenn, began first grade. Though she had no formal training as a librarian, Langley spent nearly 20 years at the elementary school as its librarian in the 1960s and early ’70s.
Charles Therriault was in elementary school in the 1960s and remembers Langley, who was Mrs. King at the time, well.
“She was just the sweetest, kindest woman,” Therriault said. “I wasn’t the best student, but whenever I had a problem, she was always there.”
Therriault said “Mrs. King,” knew that he was not much of a reader, but she was able to pick out book suggestions that piqued his interest.
“It wasn’t just, read this for an assignment,” Therriault said. “She really got to know me. The one thing I cannot get over was her kindness. She just loved children.”
That love of children was in evidence when a fire at the elementary school forced students to attend classes in different buildings while repairs were made. Langley made sure the students still had their library during this time.
Campbell said her mother had befriended a retired teacher across the street from the school. She would visit her daily during lunch and when the woman decided to sell her aging green Buick, the woman’s son made sure it went to Langley, who used it to deliver library books to the students.
“Here was mom, in this big, old green Buick driving around with books for the students,” Campbell said, laughing as she recalled the image.
Campbell also remembers her mother’s love of children.
“In any picture mom was holding a child, she just had the biggest smile on her face,” Campbell said. “It was really natural for her and she was just so happy to mother many children.”
Dan Hammond, also a student at the elementary school when Langley was the librarian, became best friends with her son, Glenn.
“Just a great person and I remember a lot of family stuff — good family stuff — going on all the time,” Hammond said.
Langley helped care for her grandchildren, Larissa Pyer and her two brothers while their parents, Sonya and Michael Campbell, worked during the day.
“She was a constant presence in our lives growing up,” Pyer, of Lebanon, said.
After a freshman year away at college, Pyer returned home to attend community college and work full-time. Many days off from school and work were spent with her grandmother, doing any number of activities, including blueberry picking or canning the bounty of vegetables Langley grew in her garden.
“I saw other friends whose grandparents had passed away so I was aware of time going by and wanted to make the most of those memories,” Pyer said. “Some things we did were mundane; others more memorable. We are so fortunate to have had that time together.”
If there was one memory that stands out for Pyer, and there were many, she said, it was the times she spent baking with her grandmother. Pyer said her grandmother earned a well-deserved reputation for the quality of her confections.
“She was known for beautifully decorated cakes for birthdays and anniversaries,” she said. “She always put a lot of care into what she did.”
Baking Christmas cookies stands out not only for the volume of cookies they made — 13 different types one year — but also because of a particular photo Pyer’s brother took during one baking session.
“It was her and I making Christmas cookies in her house in Hanover,” Pyer said.
They entered it in a local Mother’s Day photo contest and won first prize, a $600 gift card for groceries, Pyer said.
Langley’s grandson, Spencer Lemay, also has wide-ranging memories of the time spent with his grandmother. During her funeral service, he recounted learning how to pack a snowball and ride a bike; baking cookies, sweet bread and muffins; enjoying trips for ice cream and setting up the Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving at her house, wrapping gifts and having dinner together.
At the end of his eulogy, Lemay asked how to convince someone to want to spend time together, to become a fixture in a loved one’s life and create an unbreakable bond of love.
“The answer: You give yourself,” Lemay said. “Gram gave the best of herself to us. Even the best-looking cookies. She gave us time individually and together. She made each of us a priority.”
Patrick O’Grady can be reached at pogclmt@gmail.com.