Westport – Janet L. Grindley of Westport Point, local author, who wrote under the name Janet Gillespie, died on September 17, 2005 in her home surrounded by her family. Born in East Orange, NJ, on July 9, 1913, to Eleanor MacMaster (Hall) Wicks and Robert Russell Wicks, she’s been a year-round resident of Westport Point since 1969 and has had a lifetime connection with Westport, spending her childhood at the family home on Scotch Pine Lane.
She raised her four children in Exeter, NH, where her late husband, William Ernest Gillespie, who died in 1967, was a teacher at Phillips Exeter Academy. In 1969, she married Robert F. Grindley, who predeceased her in 1995.
A writer and gardener, she published two gardening books, The Joy of a Small Garden and Peacock Manure and Marigolds, and three memoirs: Bedlam in the Back Seat, a chronicle of a family trip abroad, and A Joyful Noise and With a Merry Heart about her early years in Westport. For many years she wrote a gardening column “The Carefree Gardener” for the New Bedford Standard Times and enjoyed her later years gardening by the sea.
She is survived by 2 sons: Christopher R. Gillespie of Westport and Timothy H. Gillespie of Westport; 2 daughters: Hilly G. van Loon of S. Newfane, VT and Margaret A. Gillespie of Westport Point; a sister: Margaret Spicer of S. Newfane, VT; 10 grandchildren; 6 great grandchildren; and several nieces and nephews.
She was the sister of the late Alden Wicks, David Wicks and Robert Wicks.
A memorial service in her honor will be held at the Westport Point United Methodist Church on Friday, October 7, 2005 at 2:00 P.M.
Calling hours are respectfully omitted.
Interment will be private.
In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to the Westport Watershed Alliance, 1151 Main Road, Westport, MA 02790, an organization committed to preservation of the river she loved so much.