Obituary of Jeanette P. (Pyburn) Wood

Jeanette P. (Pyburn) Wood, 89, of Peabody, died Tuesday evening at the Kaplan Family Hospice House in Danvers following a courageous battle with breast cancer. She was the wife of the late Edwin Charles Wood who died on December 24, 1998 after 47 years of marriage. Born in Peabody, she was the daughter of the late Richard and Jennie (Spence) Pyburn. She lived her entire life at the “Summit View Farm” in Peabody and graduated from Peabody High School. She continued her education and earned her BS in Occupational Therapy at Tufts University in 1949 and worked as an occupational therapist at Danvers State Hospital for 1 year before dedicating her self to raising her family. Jeanette is a polio survivor who was stricken with childhood polio when she was nine years old. She grew up on Summit Street and was the middle child who outlived her siblings. Her two older sisters, Mary Harroll and Elizabeth Chumak and her two younger sisters, Lillian Jones and Helen Noyes, she also had a brother, Buddy, who died as a child. Jeanette was active many years ago at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Peabody where she taught Sunday School and contributed to the fall fund raising fair, was married there and had her children baptized there, and worked in the thrift shop. Jeanette loved textile art, embroidery, quilting, and crafts. She enjoyed gardening and her Summit Street home was known for the fabulous daffodils, tulips and iris blooming at the front in the spring. She leaves their son Richard Wood of Peabody, Janice Wood of Peabody, and Jennifer and George Moreau and two granddaughters, Deanna and Rebecca Moreau, all of Newburyport, and also leaves many nieces and nephews, including Karen McPherson of Middleton, the late Sandra Ross, Lois Jensen of Hope, ME, Barbara Chumack of Augusta, ME, and Robert Chumack of Salem. Following cremation, her Funeral Service will be held on Saturday at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Peabody at 11:00 AM to which relatives and friends are kindly invited to attend. Burial will be in Cedar Grove Cemetery, Peabody. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in her name to the Hospice of the North Shore, 75 Sylvan St., Suite B-102, Danvers, MA 01923.