Legendary Jane Scott dies at 92

Jane Scott, the legendary journalist who covered four decades of rock 'n' roll for The Plain Dealer, died early Monday after a long illness, said Linda Scott, Jane Scott's niece. She was 92. Details of the funeral services, to be held in Ann Arbor, Mich., are pending. A memorial service will be held at a later date in Cleveland.

Her byline appeared in the newspaper thousands of times, above music features, concert reviews and her long-running "What's Happening" column in Friday! magazine.
Scott was on a first-name basis not only with music fans throughout Northeast Ohio, but with most of the luminaries in the rock 'n' roll universe.

For the rest of the PD obit, go www.cleveland.com/popmusic/index.ssf/2011/07/jane_scott_legendary_plain_dea.html"

Obits were in newspaper far and wide, from the New York, L.A. times to a paper in Newfoundland. Jane would be happy.



The photo, by Rosemary Kovacs, was taken at Jack Hagan's going away party in December 2005. She was still dancing.

Former copy editor Steve Esrati points out that the obit neglects to mention that Jane was a lieutenant commander in the Navy during World War II and that she was a tee-totaling Christian Scientist who held great (alcohol included) parties near Christmas every year in her tiny Gold Coast apartment.

Jane, a member of the Rock Hall of Fame, attended Steve's 70th birthday party at Sergio's in 1997. All other PD attendees preceded her in death, he says.

Former PD photographer Bill Wynne recalls:
Jane family name was Sapp. The Family decided to change the name to Scott, in her young years because of ridicule the family faced through the years. Jane's brother was a high executive at Ford Motors and Pres of Philco in his later years.
I spent my first 11 years covering almost exclusively the Sunday Features Dept. 1953--'64. I chauffeured Scotty, (kids and Golden agers.) Esther Brightman, (Women's Clubs) Jane Artale (Woman's Golf) Cecil Relihan (Home Decorating, ) Bess Howell, and Irma Winkle Bartell Dugan ) (Gardens) ( Paul Metzler and Helen Borsick Cullinan (Art) Helen Robinson ,and later a little of Janet Beigle French, (Home Ec) some of Bob Finn ( Music) ,Mary Strassmeyer, (Society and Features.)
Those were busy years, some Sundays had 24 photos published and there were many mid week. It was easy to exchange stories of our family lives with each other with the frequency of assignments and long drives . l Ioved all of those gals but I was glad finally to get off the bicycle with less rushed usually, news stories. Another Scotty revelation. Scotty's dad worked on the far Eeast Side. They lived in Lakewood. Her dad grew tired of driving into the sun in the mornings and coming home into the sun in the evening. so the family moved to Chagrin. One of the funniest assignments Jane dug up was going to cover her piano teacher in Lakewood who was now aged. The teacher sort of didn't recognize Scotty , but began to tell us about this little girl peppy little girl named Jane Sapp that hustled into her parlor for lessons and hustled out, flying down the street.
Scotty didn't mention anything about it on the way back. Neither did I.


From Roldo Bartimole

My step son was in charge of the radio program "Wait, wait don't tell me"
when it came to this area (Akron actually) for a live show.

The area guest of the show in the early 2000s: Jane Scott.

Saw her nodding off in the audience as she awaited
her call. However, she was awake and funny when she got her
chance on stage. An excellent guest.

Greg Stricharchuk did a front page piece on her when he was
at the Wall St. Journal.