Jane Mayhew Rust of Hingham died on May 2 at her home. She was 98.

Mrs. Rust was born on Jan. 4, 1919 in Canton, China, the daughter of the late John Wesley Mayhew and Helen Lee Mayhew.

She was a world traveler starting at a young age. She spent time in Canton, Hai Phong (in northern Viet Nam) and Saigon. When she was about four years old, in Saigon, she recalled having fruit bats hanging from the electric wires on her bedroom ceiling and her father having to get them out by swatting at them with his tennis racquet. When she was about five years old, the family moved to the Kowloon District in Hong Kong and spent several years there. She remembered the lively geckos on the walls and checking for spiders on the towels.

In 1923 her family bought the Merrybrook home near Looks Pond in West Tisbury. In 1925, when Mrs. Rust was about six, her mother moved the children back to this home while her father continued work as an accountant for Standard Oil Company of New York based in the Philippines. Mrs. Rust attended first through third grades in West Tisbury.

For the next several years, her mother returned abroad to join her husband in the Philippines, so Mrs. Rust was sent to a French-run boarding school in Dalat, in southern Vietnam.

In 1933 the family returned to the Merrybrook home. Mrs. Rust attended the sixth grade in West Tisbury and grades eight through 10 in Vineyard Haven. She finished her junior and senior years at The Walnut Hill School in Natick.

She went to Wellesley College as part of the class of 1940. A French major, she spent her junior year in Paris and lived with a French family. She recalled having to return home before she had planned due to the political tensions building in Europe at that time.

She worked at the Liberty Mutual insurance office in Boston as a claims examiner until her father died in 1941, when she moved back to West Tisbury to be with her mother. During World War II, Mrs. Rust worked as an administrative assistant at the Red Cross office at the airport on Martha’s Vineyard.

She married Eugene Rust of Boston in 1949. In 1951, they built a house near World’s End in Hingham, where they would raise their family and stay for 58 years before moving to Allerton House in Hingham in 2009.

Over the years, they established a second home on Martha’s Vineyard, where they spent the summer months with their family at their small cottage near the ocean at Stonewall Beach in Chilmark. Mrs. Rust enjoyed ocean swims, relaxing beach walks, tending to her lovely flower garden, and going on family fishing trips.

She planned a 10-month trip to Spain and Portugal where the entire family, including both young daughters, spent 1962 and 63. She also planned a two-month family trip to Mexico during the summer of 1969.

She was an avid downhill skier and was skiing into her 70s. She was an accomplished knitter and made numerous needlepoint pillows. She loved to cook and mastered several Julia Child and James Beard dishes. She also was a voracious reader and loved crossword puzzles. She especially enjoyed playing bridge with her group at Allerton House.

She is survived by her daughter, Lee Rust Dixon, and her husband, John Robert Dixon, both of Middleborough; her daughter, Susan Mayhew Rust, of Weymouth; and her granddaughters, Caitlin Dixon of New York, N.Y. and Margaret Dixon of Pittsfield. Mrs. Rust was predeceased by her loving husband of 61 years, Eugene Rust, in 2010.

Condolences may be sent by using the Bartlett Funeral Home website at bartlett1620.com. The family will have a celebration of her life for family and friends in Weymouth at a later date. A similar private gathering will be held in Chilmark during the summer.

Donations in her memory may be made to the Hospice of the South Shore, 30 Reservoir Park Dr., Rockland, MA 02370.