Jane Gray Allen

JANE GRAY ALLEN

Iowa City

My mother, Jane Gray Allen, died with no suffering and her dignity intact at Keystone Cedars in Memory Care around 8 p.m. on June 18, 2021. Jane was 92 when she passed away, and she always liked to travel first class. That's how she got treated by Keystone staff for all of the eight years she spent under their supervision.

I won't put all the staff in this obituary, I will come by with brownies and sweet rolls to expand your waistlines.

Jane was born on Feb. 13, 1929, in Anamosa, Iowa. The Westphal family owned the Super Value on Main Street for decades. Dutch and Wilma, and later John Westphal, ran Westphal's Super Value with pride, and it showed with all the loyal customers.

All those hard hours in the store put in by her father "Dutch" and brother John paid for Jane's education at the University of Iowa in Iowa City. While at Iowa, Jane was the leader in the baton throwing at halftime. She once taught a teenage Julie "Julia" Ricketts so well that she knocked two lights out that hung from the rafters at the old U of I Fieldhouse.

After Mom finished her education at the U of I, she taught school at U-High. Mom loved art, and she loved it when Dave Lawton built "Strike Force," which the U of I bought and put near Carver-Hawkeye basketball arena.

Jane had near-perfect handwriting and I am glad I was not one of her students in the fifth grade. My Dad, Dr. Stuart C. Gray, didn't meet her standards and she remarked to him: "Stuart, look at this note you wrote, that handwriting is so bad I am not sure if you are right- or left-footed!"

Mom loved her piano, to the end of her life. At Keystone, no night passed that she did not play for residents and staff. If there is a heaven, God had better hire a guy who really knows how to tune a piano!

As much as Mom loved the arts, I think Iowa football ran a close second. She saw the 1950s teams win Rose Bowls. She suffered through that 20-year dud period, and enjoyed the uprising of Hayden Fry. She once said that if Fry had not come in, they could have put a sign up at the coaching office that read: "No Talent Incorporated."

Jane liked to follow politics and never missed a vote. She thought Richard Nixon could have hired better speech writers – after one of his long orations, she had two statements: "He seems anxious, very anxious to display all the long words he had displayed." The other statement after another Nixon speech is still my favorite. It went: "I could feel the intellect sucked out of me."

Mom liked to entertain or host events at the home on Woodlawn Drive in Iowa City. Richard Davis and Karla had family and friends over, and lots of drinks flowed when Wayne Wood and Judy had reception party drinks with Stuart tending bar.

Jane enjoyed weddings, they were a good excuse to dance and be with people. She was a very social person.

In her way, she brought out the best in the three men in her life: Dr. Stuart C. Gray, Dr. Hoyt Allen, and Jerry Ovel, her last boyfriend, whom she had known since high school in Anamosa, where it all started.

Private services have been held.