WESTERLO — Jean Frances Britton was a resolute woman who took her family on camping trips with the same regularity and determination she used learning to negotiate the pedals of farm machinery and church organs.

As she started in her middle age a high-pressure job at the state’s tax department, Mrs. Britton sat at her kitchen table with a phone book splayed in front of her while dinner was cooking, dialing the numbers by tapping her fingers to learn an imaginary numberpad.

“When there’s a problem, there’s always a solution,” her daughter, Elaine Nevins, said of the lesson learned from Mrs. Britton. “You’ve just got to step back, think about it, and there’s a solution to it.”

“If she had problems playing a song or something, she’d just practice and practice until she got it right,” added Thomas Nevins, her son-in-law.

Mrs. Britton died on Thursday morning, Feb. 12, 2015, at the Good Samaritan Nursing Home in Delmar. She was 80. Her family picked “The Old Rugged Cross,” a favorite marked in Mrs. Britton’s personal songbook, to be sung at a memorial service on Feb. 21 with Pastor Will Balta officiating.

Mrs. Britton was born in Kinderhook on Aug. 19, 1934, to the late Eugene and Lillian (née Warman) Lasher. They spent most of her youth in Castleton, a village on the Hudson River, where her father worked for a local paper mill; he had a boat on the river and their social circle was centered on the Castleton Boat Club.

Mrs. Britton’s father didn’t allow the children to drive his car, Mrs. Nevins said, but the father of Mrs. Britton’s friend taught his daughter to drive, so Mrs. Britton took lessons from him and saved up enough money to buy her own car.

“She was bound and determined that she was going to get a license and learn how to drive, and she did,” Mrs. Nevins said.

Mrs. Britton graduated from Castleton High School in 1952 and studied nursing alongside her sister. She later held jobs in office work at a telephone company; Blue Cross and Blue Shield; the Albany County Soil and Water Conservation District; and the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles, from which she retired.

She was like a mother to her siblings, her family said, proud of the accomplishments of her twin sister, Joan, and their younger brothers, Marvin, a state trooper, and Ronny, the owner of a glass cutting company.

On Oct. 11, 1958, she married Raymond Britton, a Westerlo native whom she met square-dancing, their marriage of 52 years ending with his death in 2011. They both loved the Yankees and camping together in rural places.

“I think they were always honest with each other,” their daughter said of the Brittons’ marriage. “One thought about it and gave in to the other. It wasn’t worth a fight.”

Mrs. Britton made the transition from village life to living on a farm in the rural town, where Mr. Britton was a supervisor in the 1960s. Once, when he was out campaigning, their pigs found their stored grain, eating it without restraint, their daughter recalled. The only vehicle available at the farm was a large, manual-shift truck she wasn’t used to, but she got in and drove it to find Mr. Britton and bring him back to round up the pigs.

“My father always said, if it had a motor and transmission, Mom could drive it,” said Elaine Nevins.

Toward the end of his life, her father complimented her on what a good driver she was, her daughter said.

Having grown up near a river, she continued to be attracted to areas with water, choosing vacation spots like the St. Lawrence Seaway and the Thousand Islands archipelago. She and her husband were members of the Hilltown Hoppers Camping Club, part of the National Campers and Hikers Association. Though Mrs. Britton chose campsites near rivers, and Mr. Britton liked to fish, he could not swim “a stroke,” Elaine Nevins said. They played games like pinochle, Mexican Train dominoes, and canasta, enjoying the company of other campers near a fire, away from telephones.

“I think my father had it right that you work during the week, but your family is your weekend,” said Elaine Nevins.

They spent their winter vacations after retirement in Florida and their summers in St. Johnsville along the Mohawk River, and Hampton beach, where they had gone for their honeymoon.

The Brittons were both members of the Westerlo Democratic Social Club, but Mrs. Britton’s social center was in her church. She and her husband were members of the South Berne Congregational Christian Church and past members of the Westerlo Reformed Church; she played organ during separate periods at each. At the Westerlo Reformed Church, her daughter said, Mrs. Britton asked that the money meant to pay her for playing be spent instead on repairing the organ or buying a new one.

Later in life, she was proud of her grandson, Steven Nevins, who took after her musical inclinations and absorbed her organ lessons, going on to play the saxophone.

“It was a goal to be able to play an organ for a church, so she took lessons in Delmar. And I don’t think it was that easy for her,” said her daughter. She played it every night, she said. “There are certain hymns that are played during a church service that are hard to play, but she just kept playing them.”

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Mrs. Britton is survived by her daughter, Elaine Nevins, and her husband, Thomas; her grandson, Steven Nevins; her twin sister, Joan Johnson and her husband, Earl, of Caroga Lake; her brother, Ronald Lasher, and his wife, Helen, of Castleton; her brother-in-law, Donald Britton, of Westerlo; and her sister-in-law, Gloria Lasher.

She is also survived by her nieces, Monica Johnson-Hisert, Michele Beckman, and Justine Gummer and her husband, Michael; her nephews, Ronald “J.R.” Lasher and his wife, Angela, and Christopher Lasher and his wife, Dawn; and many great nieces, nephews, cousins, and good friends.

Her parents and her husband, Raymond Britton, died before her, as did her brother, Marvin Lasher.

The family thanks the doctors, nurses, staff, and hospice volunteers at Good Samaritan for their kindness and compassion while taking care of Mrs. Britton these past few years.

Calling hours will be held Saturday, Feb. 21, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the A.J. Cunningham Funeral Home, 4898 Route 81 in Greenville, followed by a Christian service at 1 p.m. Spring burial will be in Westerlo Rural Cemetery.

Mourners may go to ajcunninghamfh.com.

Memorial contributions may be made to South Berne Congregational Christian Church, 101 Church Road, Berne, NY 12023.

— Marcello Iaia