1947 – 2016

BRADENTON, Fla. — Janet Duty Stanhope passed peacefully Tuesday, Nov. 15, just 48 hours after suffering a massive intracerebral hemorrhage.

She had been visiting two of her best friends at their Florida home when it happened — best friends who stayed with her or nearby for the duration. Even emergency medical services and two hospitals all staffed with very good and caring people were unable to save her. But she did hang on until her husband of 46 years, Edward (Eddy) Stanhope could fly down, join her and be at her side as she slipped away.

She was born in 1947 to Florence and John Duty of Auburn. She attended Auburn schools, graduating with Edward Little, Class of ’66. In the fall of 1960, she took a hunter safety course at the Auburn Rifle Club (ARC). The ARC was hosted by American Legion Post 31 which was then located up behind the Auburn YMCA.

Through her high school years, Janet shot .22 target rifles with the ARC’s Junior Club in the Legion’s basement range. She earned advanced marksmanship awards, made lifelong friends and met her future husband, Eddy, then of Lisbon.

The same focus and dedication that she perfected at ARC earned her membership in the ELHS National Honor Society.

For many of Janet’s school years, her mother was a teacher at Walton Junior High in Auburn. In 1970, she followed her mother into teaching with her first teaching position at Auburn’s Sherwood Heights Elementary.

By fall of 1970, her old ARC friend, Eddy, had completed two tours in Vietnam as a helicopter pilot and was using his GI Bill at the University of Maine, Orono.

On one of his many weekend trips home to the L-A area (just to see Janet) he asked, “What are you doing next weekend?” When she answered, “Nothing,” he said, “Let’s get married.” To his everlasting delight she said, “Yes, if you plan it.”

The outdoor wedding was at the Giants Staircase on Bailey Island. During the vows, a lobster boat could be heard chugging up the channel less than 200 yards away but was not seen in the fog.

The whole wedding party consisted of the minister of a small Orr’s Island church, the bride, the maid of honor — Nancy, a teacher whom she worked with, the best man — Kim, the bridegroom’s cousin/college roommate, and the bridegroom.

Janet finished the school year in Auburn as Eddy continued at UMO. The next three years she taught in Hampden while following her sister, Muffet, toward a master’s degree in guidance and counseling at UMO (where she carried a 4.0).

She became disillusioned with education — loving the classroom and children but hating the school administration’s silliness and the shallowness of academia. She resigned from both, saying she’d “rather shovel road apples at the equestrian center than have them dumped on her by a broken education system.” After a career removing equestrian byproducts by the tractor bucket full, she traveled with her husband as he attended advanced military schooling in L.A. and AL. Then they returned to Auburn where she settled down to selling cars and trucks at a major dealership.

She later went to Bessey Motor Sales in South Paris, it being a nice down-home dealership; it became her happiest workplace. There she transitioned from sales to become finance manager and title clerk. After 19 years at Bessey’s, the winter commute became too much. Her last year working was only 5.4 miles from home at another happy place: Emerson Chevy Buick.

After retirement she spent countless fun-filled hours voluntarily working on walking trails, gardens and the grounds at Granite Mills Estates where they lived.

Also after retirement she jumped into volunteering as a greeter at the Hospice House in Auburn. Concurrently, she served as a regional coordinator for the American Red Cross National Headquarters, monitoring the union of Northeastern VA hospitals and their nearby ARC chapters.

At a national VA Volunteer Service conference, she learned that some hospitals have air rifle shooting as an adaptive sport. When told Maine’s Togus VA hospital didn’t have such a program for lack of special coaching staff, she volunteered her husband and herself.

Local sportsman’s groups, veterans’ groups and motorcyclists provided the needed equipment and supplies. Janet and Edward have provided the coaching, expertise and leadership for the past five years. They’ve trained others and the veteran athletes themselves to coach and run the program.

Togus teams have done well at the National Veterans Golden Age Games, bringing back shooting medals most years and lots of medals in other events every year.

For their next shooting program, the Stanhopes hoped to reunite the Auburn Rifle Club and American Legion Post 31 for the Legion’s National Air Rifle program. It’s a feeder program for USA Shooting’s National and International Junior, Senior and Olympic teams.