AUBURN — Jean S. McGuire passed away Tuesday, May 31, after a long illness.

Jean was born in Rumford, the only child of Felix and Mary (Barney) Stalmuke. She attended local schools and the University of Maine, finally settling in Bethel.

She pursued a career as a teacher, taking time out to raise her two children, Michael and Megan. She will be fondly remembered for her creative approach to teaching and to life. For many years, she helped children catch up their reading and math skills. Her children and their friends remember evening sessions of being drafted to sort jelly beans by color for Jean’s math students or to cut out paper snowmen for her “Reading Blizzard” programs. Her house was always full of books and boisterous activity.

She was a voracious reader of news magazines and mystery novels. Her friends and those of her children were never sure what to expect coming to her house, be it an active debate on the propriety of students wearing T-shirts with beer logos to school, or a sign pinned to the door advising that spitting on the floor and gunplay were not tolerated in Ma Jean’s Bar and Grill.

Her grandchildren, who called her “Peekie,” remember staying with her in the summer, where they could eat Popsicles on her garage roof, take swimming trips to Sunday River and quickly hop in the car to go watch the trains as they passed through Bethel. Her home was a place of love, laughter and acceptance. She offered herself freely as a sympathetic ear to anyone who needed it.

Jean is survived by her son, Michael McGuire, his wife, Eileen and their three children, Brendan, Sean and Kate, all reside in Farmington; her daughter, Megan McGuire and her partner, Christopher Cody, both of Litchfield; and assorted grand dogs, cats and rats.