The Meade County Messenger

JANE MARLOW WILLIS

Jane Marlow Willis, 68, Brandenburg, died Feb. 17, 2010. She was the only child of James Mercer Willis and Thelma Marlow Willis, born March 8, 1942.

Jane graduated from Meade County High School in 1959 as a National Merit Finalist. She graduated from Southern Methodist University in 1964 with a degree in journalism. She then returned home to start working with her parents at the Meade County Messenger. In 1966 she won a Mark Ethridge Fellowship and studied literature and dramatic arts at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Later that year she took a class in torts at the University of Louisville School of Law. In 1970 Jane became president of the Western Kentucky Press Association. She served as a judge on several state and regional newspaper contests, and won several prizes, usually for her efforts in open records problems.

On April 3, 1974, a major tornado outbreak sent a twister roaring through Brandenburg at the beginning of the outbreak. Jane was the contact with both state and national media covering the tornado. She did this while dealing with major damage to both the Messenger office and her home, living in a HUD trailer until August.

In 1975 Jane took a 20-hour fire training class with the Brandenburg Fire Department and soon became an active member of the department. In 1976 she began taking college courses in fire science, and in 1979 received her second bachelor’s degree, a BS in fire prevention and control.

The Willises were frequent participants in the National Newspaper Association’s Government Affairs Workshops in Washington. In 1980, Jane attended an NNA Study Mission to Cuba, and in 1981, went on a similar trip to Ireland and Northern Ireland. In 1983, she participated in an NNA Study Mission to the countries of the Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand, and other Southeast Asian areas of Burma and Hong Kong.

In 1983 Jane and Thelma sold The Messenger. Jane then returned to EKU and completed work on her master’s degree in criminal justice in 1985, going to Britain for a summer as part of that program. She then worked for Rust Engineering in Oak Ridge, Tenn., as a technical writer, but was uncomfortable working even in a small way toward the production of nuclear weapons, so she reactivated her Peace Corps application. In November, 1986, she left for the Solomon Islands where she was a community education adviser, and later information officer for the Western Province. For her project of collecting books for the primary schools of New Georgia, Jane won the Sargent Shriver Peace Worker Award.

In 1992, she reapplied to Peace Corps to be a part of working with the formerly Communist world, and was sent to Albania, where she served as a small business advisor 1993-1994.
Jane also started her own small business, Wordsmith, where she was a writer, mainly producing resumes.

In 1996, she went to Bosnia-Herzegovena as an election supervisor. She was stationed at Visoko, near Sarajevo. She returned to Bosnia as a polling supervisor, being stationed in Prnjavor, near Banja Luka in the Republic Srpska.

Jane cared for her mother as she needed more help and after her mother’s death, Jane went to Thailand to teach English at a Catholic school, staying in Thailand for three years.

Jane was also an active member of the Ambrose Meador Chapter of the DAR, currently serving her third year as Regent. She was also for many years a member of Mensa (the high IQ group).

Jane is survived by her cats, Martin and Thomas. She also was survived by two aunts and by several cousins.

Like her mother, she has donated her body to the University of Louisville. A memorial service will be held at a later date.

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