James “Jay” Hanley passed away on Aug. 31, 2020 at his beloved County Line Farm in Dresden Mills, surrounded by his loving family.
Jay served in the Coast Guard and taught school in Augusta, New Hampshire, and The Netherlands before devoting his passion to Hanley’s Greenhouse. Jay was born with a green thumb on April 22, 1940 … a day which would ultimately become Earth Day. With his greenhouse business, it is fitting that he evolved locally into the “Father of Earth Day.”
Jay was predeceased by his parents, Edward E. and Florence H. Hanley; and his beloved siblings, Terence “Terry,” missing in action during the Vietnam War, Robert “Tony” Anthony, Stephen, and Cheryl Hamilton; as well as two brothers-in-law, Kimball Fraser and Richard Lechette.
Jay is survived by Stephen Wentworth, his partner and companion of 50 years; and his siblings, Edward Hanley and his wife Adrienne, Barbara Lechette, Alicia Fraser, John Hanley and his wife Linda, and Jeffery Hanley and his wife Sally; as well as his sister-in-law, Sheila Hanley, and his brothers-in-law, Lawrence Hamilton and George Snead; 26 nieces and nephews and their many children.
Services to be announced at a later date.
