Edna Laurelei Oren Gaynor Ayers

WETUMPKA, Alabama – At age 105, Edna Laurelei Oren Gaynor Ayers died May 4, 2023, at her home in Wetumpka.

She was born Oct. 12, 1917, in New Cumberland, Pa., to Jesse and Blanche (Sidler) Oren. She became a resident of Wetumpka in 2005, when she moved from Florida to be near two of her daughters. Before living in Florida, she was a resident of Chautauqua County, New York, for more than 30 years, including 25 in Bemus Point and about five years in Jamestown.

She was a 1939 graduate of Penn State, where she earned a bachelor of science degree in nutrition. As a registered dietician, she worked at several hospitals in the Northeast in the 1940s. After moving to Jamestown in 1959, she taught nutrition at a school of nursing. From 1963 until she retired in 1981, she managed a multi-location school cafeteria program.

She and her first husband, the late John Starr Gaynor, married in 1941. They had four children: the late John Robert (“BJ”) Gaynor; Wetumpka residents Susanne Starr Gaynor Barnet and Deborah Edna Gaynor (Craig) Johnson; and Kathleen Judith Gaynor, who lives in Westerly, R.I., with her husband, Bruce Ferguson. Both Edna’s husband and son died in 1983.

In 1984, she married Alan F. Ayers, who had been a longtime physics teacher and assistant coach at Jamestown High School. They lived in Jamestown for several years before moving permanently to Florida, where “Al” died in 1996.

She was an accomplished cook and baker, and a skilled seamstress, knitter, quilter and rugmaker. She learned the game of bridge in college, and played with the bridge club at Wetumpka’s senior center until age 102. As a child she learned to play the violin, and continued to play as an adult with community orchestras in the Jamestown area. She took up golf after she retired at age 64. She loved to travel to either visit her children and their families, or to experience destinations such as the Panama Canal, Pacific Northwest and Swiss Alps. She lived in seven states: Pennsylvania, New Jersey, California (where her husband served in the Navy during World War II), Georgia, New York, Florida and Alabama. 

She was a member of Wetumpka’s First Methodist Church, and a regular at Wetumpka Library’s book club meetings. An avid reader, she was still enjoying books at age 104, and read the newspaper daily until a few months before death. She was always busy in her kitchen until age 103, when her daughters begged her to stop.

Besides her three daughters, survivors include seven grandchildren: John Andrew (Jenny) Gaynor of Barrington, R.I.; James Ryan (Hillary) Gaynor of Stratham, N.H.; Charlotte Louise Barnet of Wales, U.K.; Alice Elizabeth Barnet (Martin) Coote of Wymeswold, U.K.; Eric “EJ” Johnson of Wetumpka; Sarah Starr Johnson Hutcherson of Wetumpka; and Ashley Gaynor Kozlowski of Coventry, R.I.

She also is survived by seven great-grandchildren and several nephews, nieces, and their children.

Burial will be in New York at the Bemus Point Cemetery.