Jane McNeel Keller

January 19, 1933 - November 28, 2014

Artist and teacher, Jane Keller brought humor, exuberance and her sense of connectedness to every encounter. In her disarming way she charmed others through her creativity, communication, and feeling of kinship with all kinds of people; bringing others together in unexpected ways. Her touch lightened the world with laughter and joy and her irrepressible courage to be an individual.

Born in 1933 in San Antonio, Texas to Adalee McNeel and Jess McNeel, the middle of three daughters and a member of the Maverick family, her template was a land of cousins. When her grandmother was running a soup-kitchen/boarding house during the Great Depression, a man entered the house threatening with a gun. Recognizing his hunger Jane's granny disarmed him with a hot meal - while Jane and her sister watched cowering from the pantry, learning a formative lesson in compassion.

In 1952 Jane Maverick McNeel and Carl Albert Keller, a veterinary medical student, were married, followed by a three-month honeymoon on Martin Mountain lookout tower in the Rockies, watching for forest fires for the US Forest Service. "There was no doctor, no supermarket, nobody to complain to," she said. She credited this unusual honeymoon at 19 and her childhood experiences in the war, with helping her understand the power to turn the difficulties life throws our way, into "compost" for what can be life's garden.

She was later to formalize this attitude as a casual student of Eastern philosophy and as a sponsor of many speakers she convinced to come to San Antonio, among whom were Dr. Victor Frankel and Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche. She was also guide and host to National Geographic photographer David Hiser for the 1976 issue featuring San Antonio.

After a divorce in 1960, she had returned to San Antonio, where she began to find and adopt "cousins" during the '70s and to extend her concept of family to the human family. She embodied an ecumenical spirit as a well-loved member of the congregation at University Presbyterian Church, San Antonio.

Throughout her adult life she taught art and art therapy and got her degree in Art/Philosophy at the University of Incarnate Word and graduate studies in counseling and guidance at St. Mary's University in San Antonio. She received awards for her work with special needs children. As a young mother she had recruited family and friends to make comedic audiotapes she sent to American soldiers in Korea, which were so appreciated that they were transmitted over the loudspeaker in the mess halls. Her habit of communicating with soldiers continued through all American engagements since, and expanded to letters to prisoners on death row in more recent years.

Jane said she really started living when she was able to follow her own heart's desire, working as an art therapist and later when she retired and was able to travel. Traveling opened her eyes to the world and to people she met around the globe.

In the 1980s Jane began sharing her time between Texas and California. She painted the California life with wry social comment, made photo collages, and produced an enormous mural for a local San Diego school and collages for local churches in California, all while continuing to teach art to elementary and junior school children.

In California she was an enthusiastic long time member of the La Jolla Play Readers Group. Although she loved California and was actively involved in local social life and church at Torrey Pines Christian Church in California, she spoke of her wish to return to Texas roots eventually. Her dramatically failing health prevented travel and any such return, however.

She was involved in many philanthropic efforts among which in San Antonio were The University Presbyterian Church's SOL Center, where she was a founder, and Sunshine Cottage. She was an admirer and angel to the Pacific Coast Harmony men's choir in San Diego who in her later years were a great joy to her. She supported charities for the blind including the Helen Keller National Center, whose local chapter asked her to teach art when she became blind.

Jane struggled with despair when she started to go blind in 2008, and lived in complete darkness from 2011 until her death in 2014. Her life's training in making compost of hardships led her to the realization that her blindness was actually her enlightenment. She shared this extraordinary insight with her family and closest friends and truly lived as a sage in recent years. Her quickness to show humor, love, compassion and forgiveness even in the grip of a terrible cancer continues to be an inspiration. In the last year of her life she often said, "I am the luckiest woman in the world."

Jane died peacefully at home on November 28, 2014, with her two children at her side. She is preceded in death by her parents; her sisters, Noel McNeel Gordon, and Rowena McNeel Dillon; her nephews, Jess Gordon and Nicholas Gordon. Jane is survived by her daughter, Katie; son, Jim; grandson, Sean; step grandson, Theodore Watson; step granddaughter, Beatie Wolfe; nieces, Laura Georgakakos and Rena Cruz; nephews, Reilly Dillon and Toby Gordon; and a world full of "cousins" whose lives she touched. She is sorely missed.

She will lie in state on Sunday, December 14, 2014 from 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. with family receiving friends from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at Porter Loring on McCullough Ave.

MEMORIAL CEREMONY

MONDAY

DECEMBER 15, 2014

10:30 A.M.

UNIVERSITY PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

300 BUSHNELL AVENUE

SAN ANTONIO, TX 78212

FOLLOWED BY A PROCESSION

TO SAN JOSE BURIAL PARK FOR:

GRAVESIDE SERVICE

MONDAY

DECEMBER 15, 2014

12:15 P.M.

SAN JOSE BURIAL PARK

8235 MISSION ROAD

SAN ANTONIO, TX 78214

SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA SERVICES:

MEMORIAL SERVICE

SUNDAY

DECEMBER 21, 2014

2:00 P.M.

TORREY PINES CHRISTIAN CHURCH

8320 LA JOLLA SCENIC DR. N

LA JOLLA, CA 92037

Flowers are welcome, donations are welcome or memorial contributions may be made to Helen Keller National Center or The Sunshine Cottage in San Antonio.