Judith Marion Lartaud Hopkins, 82, died Nov. 6, 2024.
Born May 22, 1942, in New Jersey, Judy was the first daughter of Noel and Marion Lartaud. She was a godly woman, a timeless classic and an original prep. She grew up on Fair Haven Road and married her Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School sweetheart, John. The Air Force had them traveling the world for a bit and they had their first daughter, Jennifer, in Tripoli.
After landing back in Fair Haven, first on Haggers Lane and then on McCarter Avenue, they added their second daughter, Jill, to the family. Judy and John divorced in 1978.
While Judy had had several smaller stints in secretarial roles, she joined Red Bank Regional High School in the guidance office in 1979. She stayed here until she retired so she could have the same school schedule as “her girls.”
Judy loved to read, shop, drink a good cup of tea, eat dark chocolate, and direct others on how to do their laundry. She loved to spend summers on the Jersey Shore and could be found at Sea Bright Beach & Tennis Club and later in Maine at the “cabin” with her longtime fiancé, Barclay “Clay” Blayman, and his children.
She and Clay moved from Oceanport to Wilmington, North Carolina, in 2012, where they lived until his sudden death in May 2013. She stayed in their house for several years until she couldn’t live by herself anymore. Judy moved five times to be closer to the girls in the last five years, trying to outrun Parkinson’s and Lewy body dementia, but it finally caught up with her. She fought the good fight and it was on her own terms; she decided she was done, and she was.
Judy is survived by “her girls,” Jennifer Vail of Johns Creek, Georgia, Jill (Tim) Cunningham of Hoschton, Georgia; her grand “girls,” Amelia (19), Addison (17), and Alys (11); her sister Jacque Schumacher of Sumner, Washington; her niece Amy; nephew Joe; cousins David and John (Helen) Lartaud; and her countless besties – she had so many amazing, lifelong friends!
A Mass and interment will be held at 11 a.m. Dec. 7 at All Saints Anglican Church in Wilmington, North Carolina. A New Jersey memorial will be held this spring.
The article originally appeared in the December 5 – 11, 2024 print edition of The Two River Times.
