Mary Louise “Mary Lou” (Kearns) John of Gilford, N.H. and Bonita Springs, Fla. died on Friday, October 16, 2026 after a brief, aggressive cancer. She was 76.
She was born at Salem Hospital on October 4, 1950 to Anne and George Kearns and grew up in Marblehead with her older sister, Anne Marie, spending her days at Devereux Beach and the Boston Yacht Club. She attended Star of the Sea School, graduated from Marblehead High School in 1968 and earned an associate degree at North Shore Community College in 1970. She met James “Jamie” John during College Week in Bermuda; they were married 52 years, traveled Europe and the Caribbean, and raised their children in Gilford, where she was a room parent and later a dinner-party host of some renown. Her four-year-old grandson, Lawton, called her Bestie.
She leaves her husband, Jamie; her children, Lyvie and Peter, of Gilford; her grandson, Lawton; her sister, Anne Marie Rumpf of Marblehead, with whom she talked every day; and her brother-in-law, Gregory John, and his partner Lisa Shaheen of Boston.
Calling hours are Monday, October 26 from 5 to 7 p.m. in the Carriage House at Wilkinson-Beane-Simoneau-Paquette Funeral Home, 164 Pleasant Street, Laconia, N.H. A memorial service is Tuesday, October 27 at 11 a.m. at Gilford Community Church, 19 Potter Hill Road, Gilford, livestreamed on the church website. The family suggests donations to the Gilford Public Library.
Compiled from information published by Bonita Springs, FL. Photograph courtesy of the family via Bonita Springs, FL. 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.
