Jean Beaudet, Friend of Landis

The Arbore­tum mourns the sud­den loss of a true friend and sup­port­er, Jean Beaudet. Nev­er one to seek the lime­light, Jean con­tributed in ways great and small. She leaves an indeli­ble mark on Lan­dis and a lin­ger­ing sad­ness at her untime­ly passing.

After a notable career in New York State’s Edu­ca­tion Depart­ment, Jean spent many hours at the Arbore­tum. Vol­un­teer Coor­di­na­tor Anne Don­nel­ly fond­ly called her ​“Jean Bee” and praised her abil­i­ty to cov­er mul­ti­ple roles at Arbore­tum plant sales. Office Man­ag­er Nan­cy Stueb­n­er recalled her week­ly ses­sions at the Farm­house, where Jean was part of a team updat­ing the plant col­lec­tions data­base. Erin Breglia, Gar­den Man­ag­er, worked reg­u­lar­ly with Jean in the Van Love­land Peren­ni­al Gar­den. ​“She was a great ambas­sador for Lan­dis and just loved it, intro­duced sev­er­al friends to Lan­dis too. My son Mikey loved her a lot as he was often with me in the gar­den,” Erin said.

A ded­i­cat­ed par­tic­i­pant in the Arbore­tum’s Gar­den Club, Jean’s dili­gence in the flower beds led to a posi­tion as a con­tract gar­den­er, and still she con­tin­ued to vol­un­teer wher­ev­er need­ed. Jean nev­er stopped giv­ing of her­self. She was kind in spir­it and gen­er­ous with her time, an active mem­ber of the Lan­dis com­mu­ni­ty. She enjoyed hik­ing, rid­ing her bicy­cle, and, of course, gar­den­ing. Her smile lit up the room — or the gar­den — and served her well at pub­lic events like the plant sales and gar­den shows. Jean had a deep love of fam­i­ly, includ­ing the cats she shared her home with over the years.
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And we at Lan­dis will miss her dearly.