Jamie Eldridge Peebles

Local LGBTQ+ advocate, steward of historic farm, beloved parent and grandparent.

December 31, 1951 – April 15, 2026

Jamie Eldridge Peebles, beloved parent, grandparent, farmer, artist, entrepreneur, and tireless advocate for the transgender and queer community, passed away peacefully on April 15. A lifelong resident of Weston, Massachusetts, Jamie was born in Boston in 1951 and devoted her life, in all its remarkable chapters, to creativity, community, and compassion.

Jamie's education reflected the breadth of her curiosity. She attended the Noble and Greenough School before going on to Hampshire College, where she studied photography under the renowned Jerome Liebling, and later earned a master’s degree from Boston University’s College of Communication. Her years as a fine art and commercial photographer and videographer gave form to a lifelong eye for beauty and meaning. A natural entrepreneur, Jamie co-founded North Light Studios in Boston, a photography and design firm, and Air Wear, where she and her former spouse handcrafted and sold airbrushed apparel, among the first of many business ventures she would pursue throughout her life.

Jamie's intellectual passions were as eclectic as her career. She was captivated by the visionary philosophy of Buckminster Fuller and Alan Watts, and the emerging world of artificial intelligence, and she held what those close to her knew to be a sincere and serious appreciation for concrete.

Those who knew Jamie knew that no single title could contain her. Over the decades she wore many hats: parent, mechanic, contractor, real estate developer, television and computer engineer, college professor, and, in every role she touched, an innovator. She served as Director of Development for The Trans Community of New England (TCNE) and brought that same energy and vision to every endeavor.

Jamie was a co-founder of the QueerTrans Alliance, Inc., a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing a safe, welcoming space for the queer and transgender community. Through regular events hosted on her farm at Lilac House, the Alliance offered support and counseling for those navigating gender transition, social gatherings, fundraising for medical support for trans people in financial need, emergency housing for those in need, and online and in-person workshops on transgender-affirming care. Jamie transformed the Lilac House property into an inclusive haven, a place of belonging for all who needed it.

The subject of the documentary The Second Life of Jami P, Jamie chose to share her own experience of transition publicly, hoping her story would inspire acceptance, self-acceptance, and understanding in others. It was an act of characteristic courage and generosity (the filmmaker has made the film free to all in honor of Jamie’s memory).

In her later years, Jamie ran a micro farm in Weston, a not-for-profit operation that donated its harvest to Boston Gleaners for community distribution. She was proud to steward this land not only as a working farm, but as a historic site: the property is recognized as the location of the oldest settler farm in Weston, first purchased by Edward Garfield in 1656. In her own words, Jamie believed her farm was "a model for a new sort of micro farm," rooted in history, yet pointing toward the future. Its revival, born during the pandemic from a simple wish for connection, blossomed into a community that outlasted the crisis that inspired it.

Of the many joys in Jamie's life, few shone brighter than her two grandsons, with whom she delighted in engineering elaborate LEGO creations, watching rocket launches, and jumping in piles of leaves together.

Jamie was predeceased by her mother, Katherine Merle Peebles, founder of Meadow Brook Day Camp, and her father, Thomas C. Peebles, a local pediatrician and virologist distinguished as the first scientist to isolate the measles virus, a legacy of service to humanity that Jamie, in her own way, continued.

Jamie is survived by her siblings Douglas Peebles and Merle Douglass; her former spouse, Elaine Peebles; her daughters Kristina and Angela; three nephews; and her two beloved grandsons. Beyond her family, she leaves behind a vast and devoted circle of friends and chosen family. To many of them she was mentor, confidante, and one of the great loves of their lives.

Jamie will be profoundly and lastingly missed. She is remembered as outspoken, opinionated, deeply loving, and utterly herself: a woman who lived not one remarkable life, but many.

Arrangements are forthcoming. In lieu of flowers, the family invites donations to the Lilac House Farm (@lilachousefarm).