Jean Unnewehr Putna

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Jean Unnewehr Putnam passed away January 8, 2016 at the Avalon Nursing Home in Warwick Rhode Island. She was 94 years of age.

She was born Jean Lena Unnewehr in Berea, Ohio on May 31, 1921 to Ivy Squires Lewis Unnewehr and Emery Carl Unnewehr. Her father was a professor of Physics at Baldwin Wallace College in Berea and her mother had grown up on a farm in nearby Columbia, Ohio. Jean attended public schools in Berea with her only brother Lewis Unnewehr. Jean graduated Magna Cum Laude from Baldwin-Wallace College with a major in music and mathematics. She met Harold N. Putnam in Orange, New Jersey where they both worked in a Co-Op grocery store, and they married on August 31, 1945 in Berea, Ohio. Jean and Harold soon became life-long members of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) and moved to Yellow Springs, Ohio, which was to become their home for many decades. They were members of the Yellow Springs Meeting, and her ashes will be interred in the Friends Cemetary near Oldtown, Ohio.

Over the decades, Jean taught hundreds of students, both in public schools and in her home where she taught piano in Yellow Springs, Ohio throughout the 1950s and 1960s. The home was frequently filled with melodies ranging from primitive to eloquent. She was an accomplished musician throughout her life, directing and participating in choral groups, 8-handed piano groups, playing piano and organ, writing music, and hosting dozens of recitals. Her beloved husband Harold deeply appreciated her musical talents and career. Jean’s love and devotion to music radiated from her and greatly influenced her family, friends, and her many students. Both Jean and Harold were deeply committed to world peace, non-violence, and support for civil rights. Jean sang with Coretta Scott King in 1950 at Antioch College, continuing to correspond with her for years. During one peaceful protest in the early 1950s to support de-segregation of schools in Wilmington, Ohio, she and others were shot at from the County Seat Building. Jean was also committed to nuclear disarmament in the 1960s during the Cuban missile crisis when the world was perilously close to cataclysmic war. She regularly participated in local and national demonstrations through the 1960s working tirelessly for peace and justice, and helped to publish ‘The Peacemakers’ newsletter– throughout the 50s and 60s, and compiled a ‘Songs of Peace and Freedom’ singing book, endorsed by Pete Seeger.

In 1980, Jean and Peg Champney of Yellow Springs founded Friends Music Camp, dedicated to musical growth for young people in an inclusive community informed by Quaker values. This camp has continued to provide a unique and valuable experience for young musicians for over 35 years. Many alumni of the Camp (including Jean’s granddaughter and grand-nephew) have attested to the deep effect the experience has had on their appreciation of music. Jean was known for her indefatigable cheerfulness. Over the last decade, her love for life and family and positive outlook helped her to cope with the loss of her husband and her long struggle with dementia/Alzheimer’s. Son Mark played music weekly during her last years at the nursing home, and Nancy Jean was able to visit her frequently, help her with meals and companionship. She continued to light up with new and familiar songs, attesting to the value of music in her life. Jean was a life-long vegetarian.

Jean is survived by her sons Mark A. Putnam (RI) and Daniel H. Putnam (CA), her daughter Nancy Jean Putnam (MA), daughters-in Law Nancy L. Putnam and Panna Putnam; grandchildren Greg Putnam, Nick Putnam, Satch Putnam, and Anjali Henry; and four great-grandchildren, Eric, Sofia, Asha, and Arianna.