Jean M. Ferrara

Jean Murray Ferrara passed away on Friday evening, September 11, 2026, at Roper St. Francis Hospital in downtown Charleston, after suffering a stroke at home earlier that day. She was 100 years old.

Jean was born at Greenville Hospital in Greenville, South Carolina, on October 9, 1925, to Bessie Morris Murray and James H. Murray. A few years later, her parents returned to their native Lowcountry, where Jean was educated in Charleston schools. She graduated with distinction from Memminger High School in 1943 and served as literary editor of the school yearbook during her senior year.

In February 1944, Jean married William John Ferrara, Jr., a Charleston native who was serving in the U.S. Coast Guard and stationed in Wilmington, North Carolina. The following year, they welcomed their only child, William J. Ferrara, III, affectionately known to his family as Billy.

After the war, Jean, Bill, and Billy returned to Charleston, and in 1950 they were among the first families to build a home in the new Westwood subdivision in West Ashley.

Typical of her generation and Southern upbringing, Jean was always proper and gracious, with an innate sense of style. She was invariably beautifully dressed and coiffed, and she brought that same attention to beauty to one of the great passions of her life: gardening.

Jean had a lifelong love of flowers and a natural artistic flair, particularly evident in the arrangements she created from flowers grown in her own garden. She became a nationally accredited flower show judge and competed the University of South Carolina's Master Gardener program. A longtime member of the Garden Club of Charleston, one of the oldest garden clubs in America, Jean served as its president in 2000 and later as the club's historian. In 2012, she authored a history commemorating the club's 90th anniversary.

Jean also devoted more than two decades of her life to teaching. In 1959, she became a second-grade teacher at Blessed Sacrament School, where she taught a generation of West Ashley Catholic children before retiring in 1982. During those years, summer vacation began almost as soon as the school doors closed, when Jean, Bill, and Billy would make the annual drive to Connecticut to visit her beloved twin sister, Peggy, and her family.

In 1967, Jean was delighted to welcome her daughter-in-law, Mary Stoll, into the family, and within a few years she became a grandmother to Lisa and Becky. Family remained at the center of Jean's life, and she later took great joy in becoming a great-grandmother in 1999 and welcoming a second great-grandson three years later.

Jean also treasured her friendships. In 1968, she and 19 other women formed the Shaftesbury Investment Club. For the next 35 years, its monthly meetings became highly anticipated occasions, where cocktails and lively socializing were intertwined with discussions of stocks, finances, and investments. The club never made much money but the friendships and memories greatly enriched the lives of Jean and all the club's members.

After retiring from teaching, Jean and Bill enjoyed traveling together, journeying across Canada, cruising to Bermuda and the Caribbean, and making half a dozen trips to Europe.

In 2001, when Bill suffered a stroke, Jean began what her family considers one of the crowning achievements of her life. She set aside her outside activities and devoted herself completely to caring for the husband with whom she was married for sixty three years. For the next five years, she was his constant and loving caregiver at their home, remaining faithfully by his side until his death in 2006.

The final chapter of Jean's long life centered on the things she had always treasured most: her family, her garden, her home, and, when possible, travel. As the years passed, she felt deeply the loss of so many lifelong friends. Yet she continued to find great joy in the people around her. One of the most meaningful moments of her later years came in 2025, when the Westwood neighborhood turned out to celebrate her 100th birthday-75 years after Jean and Bill had first made the neighborhood their home.

Jean was predeceased by her parents; her husband, Bill; her twin sister, Peggy M. Breitmayer, and Peggy's husband, Bill; and her daughter-in-law, Mary Stoll Ehrhardt Ferrara.

She is survived by her son, William J. "Bill" Ferrara, III; her granddaughters, Elizabeth Jean Ferrara of Charleston, South Carolina and Mary Rebecca Ferrara of Atlanta, Georgia; her great-grandsons, David "Milo" Cain of Chicago, Illinois, and Daniel Cain of Jackson, Wyoming; and her nephew, William Breitmayer of Charleston, South Carolina.

Jean's family would also like to express their heartfelt gratitude to Sandra Amaro, her devoted caregiver for the final six years of her life.

The family will receive friends between 4:00 and 5:30 PM, Thursday, September 17, 2026, at the James A. McAlister Chapel, 1620 Savannah Highway, Charleston. Her Liturgy of the Word will be celebrated at 5:30 PM in the Chapel. The Rite of Committal will be private.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that memorial contributions be made to the Blessed Sacrament Parish Life Center, 5 St. Teresa Drive, Charleston, SC 29407 (blessedsacramentplc) or to a charity of one's choice.

Arrangements by James A. McAlister, Inc. (843) 766-1365.