Mark WiedmerHer 12 grandchildren dubbed her "Little Grandma." Her four children called her "Mom." Others affectionately referred to her as "The Melrose Flyer," a nod to both her energy and her hometown of Melrose, Massachusetts.
As for the rest of us, we either called her "Mrs. Ensign" or just plain "Jane," though there was nothing remotely plain or ordinary about Betty Jane Harrigan Ensign, who passed away on July 31 at the tender age of 91.
A lot of those folks who were either related to her, inspired by her or both, perhaps close to 200 total, came to the historic Northside Presbyterian Church on Saturday morning to pay her a final and proper farewell.
"We would often leave this church after Christmas Eve service," recalled her son, David, now a minister in the Washington, D.C., area, "and she would head to the housing projects with gifts for all those kids who had far less under their Christmas trees than those that adorned our tree."
Son Tim said of his mom: "As a parent, she was not strict. She never spanked nor raised her voice. But she could always get her point across."
To prove his point, he remembered riding home from school one day with a friend during their junior high years and the two of them "making snarky comments about the way this one kid had dressed that day. Finally, my mother said, 'Boys, do you ever think how boring it would be if everybody dressed the same?'"
She had embraced the road less traveled almost from birth, when doctors told her parents she probably wouldn't survive a week because she was so small and frail.
Instead, as Tim said, "She lived 91 years and 275 days."
And the emphasis was always on living. Not surviving. Living, as in life to its fullest.
"Grandma believed an Ensign adds beauty to the world," granddaughter Kaycee noted. "Not just with her flowers and her plants, some of which were older than her grandchildren, but also with her spirit."
Kaycee soon added, "She dedicated her life to making sure those who had been dealt a more difficult card were recognized and helped. She disparaged injustice, especially racial injustice."
Indeed, as was stated in her obituary, Mrs. Ensign was a social worker in Chattanooga public schools for 25 years, helping those who needed it the most, be it with food, clothing or merely a friend to talk to about their problems.
"She wanted to learn about you," David said during his homily. "In the schools where she worked she knew the life stories of the principals, but she also knew the life stories of the custodians. When she found people who were hungry, she found a way to feed them, even though she hated to cook. She was always finding shoes and winter coats for children who needed them. She was a fierce advocate for basic fairness."
She also was a fierce advocate for bucking the status quo in favor of personal enrichment.
"Ensigns pursue passion over profit," Kaycee said of Little Grandma's creed. "Ensigns don't major in any practical subjects. They embrace language and art and such."
And while she may have hated to cook, she loved gathering the grandkids together each holiday season to decorate Christmas cookies. According to a smiling Kaycee, "you didn't want to do anything that might keep you from being invited to decorate those cookies."
We are losing them daily, these last members of the Greatest Generation - all those folks who lived through the Great Depression, and World War II, and birthed the Baby Boomers who, themselves, are now racing into retirement and beyond.
Not to slam those much younger, but the men and women of Jane Ensign's time have largely been the most selfless, charitable, compassionate, curious, well-grounded, high-character, fair-minded, frugal generation in American history. We fail to follow their lead at our own stupidity.
And it was certainly a wonderful, purpose-driven life she lived for almost every one of those 91 years and 275 days.
There was the 58-year marriage to James Ensign, their relationship beginning, in Tim's words, "over a Sunday dinner after church when they were working for the 'Y' (YMCA and YWCA) in High Point, North Carolina."
No wonder, when Tim listed a few of his mom's favorite things, "Sunday supper" and "church" were near the top of a list that also included "The Sound of Music," books, tall ships, lobster, grandchildren, graham crackers and Boston cream pie.
Then, of course, there was the running she didn't begin to embrace until she was 85. By the time she was 89 she set a state record for being the oldest person to complete a one-mile run when she competed in the 50th Chattanooga Chase.
With true Ensign humor, she told this newspaper at the close of that 2017 run, a wide smile on her face, "It's easy to break a record if you're the only one out there."
But it was the zeal with which she approached running that was the better story.
Said Tim, recalling her training runs around Riverview: "She would measure her time by the clock on her oven. She called me one day to tell me she'd shaved five minutes over her last run. I said, 'Mom, did you see what time it was when you started?' There was a long moment of silence. Then she said, 'Well, I know it felt like I was going a lot faster than the last time.'"
No one can do proper justice to a life so well lived during a one-hour funeral service.
But her family made an excellent attempt.
When grandaughter Ella, a GPS senior, was asked what she most learned from her grandmother, she said, "She always wanted me to be nice to everybody and love everybody."
If only more of us, if not all of us, could embrace such wisdom in these most difficult and divisive of times.
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.