Jean Barnes Baird (nee Fawcett), died peacefully in her sleep at home in Belwood on Tuesday August 11, 2015 at the age of 100. Beloved wife for 51 years, of the late Oswald (Sharkey) M. Baird (1990), loving mother of David F. Baird (Johanne) of Belwood and Barbara J. Acheson (Stephen) Vancouver, grandmother of April (Matt), Ashley (Marie), Egan, Tavis, Tyler, Ransleigh, & Fairley Baird, and Christopher (Grace), & Michael ( Suzanna) Acheson, great grandmother of Talia, Carson, Quinn & Elise Sawyer, Nevina & Logan Acheson. Beloved daughter of Albert Roy Fawcett (1940) (Ethel) (1951), sister of A. Vaughan Fawcett (Margaret), Francis Hendry (Dee), Helena Robb (Donald), aunt to John (Gratia), Donald (Joan), Christie (David), Graham (Judith) Fawcett, Harold Hendry (Jane), Eric (Pat), Gordon (late) & Shirley Robb, and many other relatives and friends.
Born and Raised in Upper Sackville New Brunswick June 22, 1915, she started out her adult life as a school teacher in a one room country school house, that she travelled to and from in a horse and buggy. Shortly afterwards, she met and married on July 5th, 1939, Oswald (Sharkey) Baird of Amherst Nova Scotia where she lived for the next 6 years having two children before moving to Willowdale, Ont. (suburb of Toronto) in 1946. An avid curler for many years at the Royal Canadian Curling Club in Toronto, she rose to the rank of provincial tankard champions in women’s curling in the 1960’s. She and Sharkey operated a family owned contracting plastering business during her time in Willowdale, till their retirement in 1972. Her next move was to Belwood in 1975, where she watched her grand children grow in the summers, then wintered in Fort Myers Florida each year till Sharkey’s death in 1990. She lived independently in her own home in Belwood, passing the milestone of her 100th birthday on June 22nd , till her sudden death in her sleep on Tuesday Aug. 11/15.
She saw and experienced vast and varied changes throughout her life, and touched the lives of many over her 100 years and will be sorely missed by all those that knew her.