Jean S. Alderson

OBITUARY FOR JEAN S. ALDERSON

Jean MacDonald Sobotta Alderson died October 27, 2017. The daughter of Julius and Helen MacDonald Sobotta, she was born in 1916 in Duluth, Minnesota. Her early education was in Duluth. Her mother urged her and her younger sister to see another part of the country and they both went east to college, graduating from Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York, Jean in 1938. That summer she and some classmates who had studied drama with John Houseman at Vassar ran a summer theatre, The Duchess County Players, on the Vassar campus.

In the fall of 1938, Jean moved to Wilmington to teach dramatics and public speaking at Tower Hill School. It was in Wilmington she met her husband to be, Witty Lysle Alderson, Jr., a research chemist with the DuPont Company. Jean left Wilmington in 1940 to teach Oral English at Vassar. She and Lysle were married in 1941.

The Aldersons made their home in Wilmington. Jean was President of the Wilmington Junior League, serving two terms – from 1945 to 1947. During this time, the League was influential in establishing the Delaware Curative Workshop. Jean was on the guiding staff of Winterthur Museum and Gardens for fifty years. Both the Aldersons were enthusiastic tennis players. In her later years, Jean enjoyed studying painting with the artist George Martz.

Lysle Alderson died in 1999. Jean was also pre-deceased by her sister, Helen Sobotta Brokaw and brother-in-law, Roberts W. Brokaw, Jr.

Jean is survived by her two children, Helen MacDonald Alderson of Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, and David Pitman Alderson II of Houston, Texas, his wife, Mary Taylor Alderson, and their two daughters, Taylor and Claire Alderson. Jean is also survived by her nephew, Roberts W. Brokaw III and his wife, Allison, of Wilmington and their two sons, Roberts W. Brokaw IV and C. Brokaw, as well as her niece, Jeannnette Brokaw Lindvig and her husband Kirk, of Malvern, Pennsylvania, and their sons, Ian Lindvig and his wife, Erin, and Andrew Lindvig and his wife, Elizabeth. A cousin, Mary Seymour Olmsted, the first U.S. Ambassador to Papua, New Guinea and now of Mitchellville, Maryland, also survives.

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Services will be private.

Condolences

Bonnie Baggett writes,

I was so sorry to read of Jean's passing. Many years ago, as a new volunteer Winterthur guide, I trailed Jean a couple of times, and loved her style of guiding. She often made her visitors laugh and I resolved to try to do the same with my guiding. On the day she retired, she and another long time guide who was also retiring, decided they wanted to take one last tour through the house. It turned out they were in my group! I was a nervous wreck, but they both were so supporting and so nice, I didn't have a nervous breakdown after all. She has been greatly missed in these recent years since her retirement. Bonnie Baggett

11/01/2017 12:45 pm

Ginger Junkin, née, Ficke writes,

I met Jean when she lived across the hall from my mother at the Country House. Her sister was my next door neighbor when I was growing up. Jean was such a kick, such a wit, she always had me laughing. One time when friend IL Beacom and I ran into her and IL said the heat was off in her apartment, Jean remarked, “Well, you need to pay your heating bill”. How interesting that Jean and IL died on the same day. I shall miss Jean. I would visit her whenever I was in Wilmington to see my uncle Ben Melvin. Love to the family, ginger

11/02/2017 09:43 pm

Margaret Gutteridge writes,

As a young guide at Winterthur, I always admired Jean's deep knowledge of American history. She had such a dry sense of humor and her voice was memorable! Rest in peace, Jean.

11/03/2017 04:53 pm

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