Jean Elizabeth (Hagan) Chapman, a lifelong Chelsea resident who married at 18 at the start of the Second World War and spent decades helping restore the Governor Bellingham-Cary House, died on September 7, 2026 at Newton-Wellesley Hospital. She was 101.
She and Charles Chapman Sr. were married for nearly 75 years before his death in 2018. She worked as a bookkeeper when she was young, trained as a nurse after the war, took part-time work in a doctor’s office while her children were in school, and later became a charge nurse at the Don Orione Nursing Home. She kept working past retirement age.
She led a Brownie troop and stayed with the same group of girls until they finished high school. She and her husband traveled widely, alternating years between Europe and North America with friends they met abroad, and attended military miniature conventions together under the name Lancer USA.
Her civic project was the Governor Bellingham-Cary House in Chelsea, which she wanted to see restored and preserved. She served on its board in several roles and was as likely to be found washing its floors as planning its fundraisers.
She leaves her son, Charles E. Chapman Jr. and his wife Patricia; her daughter, Nancy Donoghue and her husband Geoffrey; her grandchildren Brendan Donoghue and his wife Kate Fagerstrom Donoghue, and Nora Donoghue and her husband Jonathan Meyers; and nieces and nephews Kevin Hagan, Lisa Martel, Kyle Hagan and Leslie Bartlett. Her brother Patrick Joseph Hagan Jr. died in 2004.
Visiting hours are Friday, September 18, 2026 from 10:30 a.m. to noon at the Carafa Family Funeral Home, 389 Washington Avenue, Chelsea, followed by a funeral service at noon and burial at Woodlawn Cemetery in Everett. The family suggests donations to the Governor Bellingham-Cary House Association, Box 505673, Chelsea, MA 02150.
Compiled from information published by Carafa Family Funeral Home, 389 Washington Avenue, Chelsea. Photograph courtesy of the family via Carafa Family Funeral Home. This is our own summary, not the family’s obituary; read the full obituary and leave a condolence at the funeral home’s page on Legacy.com. Corrections: we will fix any error promptly.