Jane Sherman (June 14, 1908 – March 16, 2010) was an American writer, performer, composer, and one-time dancer and member of the Rockettes the famed in-house dance troupe of

Radio City Music Hall Radio City Music Hall (also known as Radio City) is an entertainment venue and Theater (structure), theater at 1260 Sixth Avenue (Manhattan), Avenue of the Americas, within Rockefeller Center, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York C ...

.Obituary ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', March 20, 2010; page B

She was a former member and

authority Authority is commonly understood as the legitimate power of a person or group of other people. In a civil state, ''authority'' may be practiced by legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government,''The New Fontana Dictionary of M ...

Denishawn The Denishawn School of Dancing and Related Arts, founded in 1915 by Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn in Los Angeles, California, helped many perfect their dancing talents and became the first dance academy in the United States to produce a professional ...

, the eclectic company, founded by

Ruth St. Denis Ruth St. Denis (born Ruth Dennis; January 20, 1879 – July 21, 1968) was an American pioneer of modern dance, introducing eastern ideas into the art and paving the way for other women in dance. She was inspired by the Delsarte advocate Gene ...

and

Ted Shawn Ted Shawn (born Edwin Myers Shawn; October 21, 1891 – January 9, 1972) was an American dancer and choreographer. Considered a pioneer of American modern dance, he created the Denishawn School together with his wife Ruth St. Denis. After their ...

in 1915. She performed with companies ranging from modern-dance groups to the Radio City Music Hall Rockettes.

Early life

Sherman was born in

Beloit, Wisconsin Beloit ( ) is a city in Rock County, Wisconsin, United States. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 36,657 people. Beloit is a principal city of the Janesville, Wisconsin, Janesville–Beloit metropolitan statistical area (Rock Co ...

, on June 14, 1908, to Horace Humphrey Sherman, an advertising writer, and Florentine St. Clair, an opera singer. The family moved to New York City in 1921, where Jane began studying dancing, after she saw a St. Denis program that included " Brahms Waltz and Liebesträume", a solo that inspired her to study at the New York Denishawn School.

Career

Dancing

From 1927 to 1928, she joined the

Ziegfeld Follies The ''Ziegfeld Follies'' were a series of elaborate theatrical revue productions on Broadway in New York City from 1907 to 1931, with renewals in 1934, 1936, 1943, and 1957. They became a radio program in 1932 and 1936 as '' The Ziegfeld Foll ...

and toured with the troupe, and later returned to

modern dance Modern dance is a broad genre of western concert dance, concert or theatrical dance which includes dance styles such as ballet, folk, ethnic, religious, and social dancing; and primarily arose out of Europe and the United States in the late 19th ...

as a member of the Humphrey-Weidman Company in 1928. She also appeared in Broadway revues and was a Rockette in 1934 and 1935.

Editing

After her dance career ended, she became a fiction editor at ''Seventeen'' magazine in the 1940s.

Personal life

In 1940, Jane Sherman married Ned Lehac, a high school

Science Teacher Science education is the teaching and learning of science to school children, college students, or adults within the general public. The field of science education includes work in science content, science process (the scientific method), some ...

who was also a composer and lyricist for

revues A revue is a type of multi-act popular theatrical entertainment that combines music, dance, and sketches. The revue has its roots in 19th century popular entertainment and melodrama but grew into a substantial cultural presence of its own during ...

, contributing material to 14 shows from 1930 to 1942. In the 1990s they moved together to the

Lillian Booth Actors Home The Lillian Booth Actors Home of The Actors Fund is an American assisted living, assisted-living facility, in Englewood, New Jersey, Englewood, New Jersey. It is operated by the Actors Fund, a nonprofit umbrella charitable organization that assi ...

, run by the Actors Fund, where he died in 1999, aged 99. In 2003, Jane began publishing poems, gathering them into little books, some of which commented on aging. In a poem from her self-published book "Songs of Senescence".

Death

On March 16, 2010, Sherman died at the age of 101.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sherman, Jane 1908 births 2010 deaths American female dancers Dancers from Wisconsin Dancers from New York (state) American women writers Writers from New York (state) Writers from Wisconsin Musicians from New York (state) Musicians from Wisconsin People from Beloit, Wisconsin American editors The Rockettes American women centenarians