Jane Smiley Hart

Jane Smiley Hart died July 30, 2012 in Washington D.C. of cancer, just short of her 92nd birthday. Jane devoted most of the last 40 years of her life to volunteer service to Washington D.C- based organizations. She was the President of Welcome to Washington in 1976. She was Chairman of the Women’s Committee of the Smithsonian in 1983, the year that it inaugurated its annual Craft Show. She devoted tremendous energy to the International Student House, serving as President of its Board of Directors from 1987 to 1990, during which it undertook major renovations. For her 40 years of dedicated service to the International Student House, she was awarded the Lifetime Service Award in October 2011. Jane had a long association with the Textile Museum and served as Co-Chairman of its outreach New Horizons Committee.

Jane was born August 26, 1920 in New York City. Raised in Ithaca, New York, she graduated from Cornell University in 1942. While working as a teacher after graduation, she was approached by a man at a party in Washington D.C. who asked her if she wanted to do war work. Her answer in the affirmative set the course of her life. She joined the Office of Strategic Services, the predecessor organization of the CIA, where she was assigned to work in British-occupied Egypt. In Cairo she worked nights coordinating communications with resistance fighters against the Nazis in occupied Greece 1943-1945. While there she met her future husband, Foreign Service Officer Parker T. Hart, in a Cairo hospital, where she was recovering from spinal meningitis and he was recovering from amoebic dysentery. Smitten, Parker (“Pete”) rented a felucca (Nile sailboat) for a moon light sail on the Nile, and proposed. She turned him down. After the war Jane worked at the Department of State, where she did correspondence for Dean Acheson, and studied at SAIS (School of Advanced International Studies which later became part of Johns Hopkins).

In 1949 she relented and married Pete, and was immediately posted with him to Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. She gave birth to her first child in the camp infirmary of the Arabian American Oil Company on a 120 degree day. After a short stint in Washington, she and Pete returned to Cairo in 1955, where Pete was Deputy Chief of Mission in the U.S. Embassy. While there, the Suez Crisis of 1956 erupted. After Cairo was bombed by the British and the French, the U.S. Embassy evacuated Jane and her two small daughters to an unheated hotel on the corniche in Naples, Italy.

After a brief return to Cairo, where Pete became Chargé d’Affaires, Jane and Pete were posted to Damascus, where he was the Resident Minister. At this time Syria and Egypt had combined to form the United Arab Republic. This pro-Soviet union was seen as a threat to the security of Jordan, which then combined briefly with Iraq. A Baathist coup d’état in Iraq (which eventually brought Saddam Hussein to power) ended the union with Jordan, and civil war broke out in Lebanon, thanks to Syrian infiltration. The U.S. Marines landed in Lebanon in 1958 to protect it from Communist takeover. During this tumultuous time, Jane and Pete lived under virtual house arrest in Damascus, guarded by Syrian security forces, and endured ear-shattering rooftop level flights over their house by the Syrian Air Force.

After these adventures, they returned to Washington, D.C., where they lived for two years in the Kenwood area of Bethesda.

In 1961 they returned to Saudi Arabia, where Pete was U.S. Ambassador. At the same time, Pete was the first U.S. Ambassador to newly independent Kuwait, and Minister to Yemen. Jane did research on the history of Yemen, and published a chronology of Yemeni history in the Middle East Journal. A lifetime amateur ornithologist, Jane compiled lists of birds of Arabia for the Cornell Ornithological Laboratory.

Jane and Pete then moved to Turkey, where Pete was U.S. Ambassador. Jane, who had studied classical art and Ottoman history in college, travelled to almost every province of Turkey. She served as President of the Turkish American Women’s Club, studied Turkish, volunteered at TUSLOG (U.S. Army) Hospital, and enthusiastically introduced U.S. musicians and modern U.S. artists to Turkish audiences.

After serving in Turkey, Jane and Pete returned to Washington D.C. when Pete was appointed Assistant Secretary of State. Jane immersed herself in volunteer work which she continued up to her 90th birthday. Her husband died in 1997.

Jane was also a long-time member of the Sulgrave Club and the Cosmos Club. Jane travelled, attended lectures at DACOR and the Middle East Institute, plays at the Folger and Arena Stage, and musical events at the Kennedy Center. Jane was involved in the Palisades Citizens Association.

Jane was an active member of the Metropolitan Memorial United Methodist Church for more than 50 years. A memorial service for Jane is scheduled at the church at 2 PM on August 26, 2012. In lieu of flowers, donations are suggested to the Audubon Society or the International Student House.

An accomplished pianist all her life, Jane continued studying piano with a local teacher, Louis Orphanos, until a few weeks before her death. She was often asked to play by her church for patients at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital.

Jane is survived by her daughters Margaret Hart Edwards of Lafayette, California, and Judith Hart Halsema of Manassas, Virginia, and four grandchildren.