The Spoken-Women Reporter

Long time member Jane Ann Kern was killed in a automobile accident on Sunday August 31, 2008. Jane and a couple of her friends were on their way to the Outer Banks in North Carolina when a car, driven by a Mount Laurel, NJ Catholic priest, pulled out of a side road onto Route 13 near Pocomoke City, Maryland and broad sided the car on the passenger side. . According to the police, Jane died almost instantly. The driver of the other vehicle was also killed. Both the friend who was driving and the backseat passenger are in the hospital with multiple injuries but are expected to recover.

I first met Jane in June of 1996 when I stumbled on the club's website. Her husband Walt was the webmaster at that time. I sent him an email and asked for more information on the club. Walt and I exchanged a few emails and then Jane sent me an email asking for my phone number. She called me, answered all of my questions about the club and then invited me to a meeting. I met Jane and Walt at the meeting place, liked what I saw and eventually joined the club.

Jane took me under her wing for the first couple of years I was in the club and has remained a good friend ever since. She had an almost infectious enthusiasm about life that brightened my spirits no matter how down I might have been before she came into the room. Jane didn't do anything half way. She jumped right into the thick of things determined to get as much as she possibly could out of each and every day.

Walt and Jane had the kind of relationship most couples can only dream about...they were both best friends and lovers. Jane and Walt didn't start riding a motorcycle until they were both in their 50's and she embraced her new hobby completely. She belonged to the GWRRA (Gold Wing Road Riders Association) and to Spokes-Women. They both rode the Polar Bear Circuit each winter and Jane rode the New Jersey leg of the Pony Express Ride to fight brest cancer several years ago. When heath problems made it difficult for her to hold her bike up anymore, she didn't quit riding. Like any true motorcyclist would, she found a way to keep riding by converting her husband's gold wing into a trike (pictured below).

Jane trike

Walt bought another gold wing and eventually converted his to a trike as well. The picture below shows Walt and Jane arriving for a polar bear sign up in Old Bridge this past winter.

Walt & Jane

Jane also collected Cats Meow memorabilia with as much passion as she did everything else. She has so many items that Walt built shelves along the ceiling in their home so she could display her collection for everyone to enjoy. She had hundreds of friends and shared her passions with anyone who wanted to be a part of them.

Jane had this shy and yet endearing way of talking about herself in the third person. Barbara told me about one year when Jane was going to be away for Christmas. Jane spent the month before she left decorating her house and yard because she always had a beautiful festive home for the holidays and wanted to make sure it was still festive for her neighbors even if she wouldn't be there.

If you needed Jane she was there. She was a good and loyal friend. I cried when I heard the news of her death. The words that best describe how I saw Jane Ann Kern are

"She was a kind and gentle woman with a beautiful soul."

I loved her and I will miss her.

Donna Warren
Webmaster

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